


Transferring to Gotham (DISCONTINUED!)

by Umeya_kun



Category: Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Daminette, F/M, Foriegn exchange student, Jason and Marinette are BROTP, Lila is a liar, Marinette moves schools, Other, Possessive Damian Wayne, Protective Damian Wayne
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-01
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2020-10-04 21:41:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 21,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20477912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Umeya_kun/pseuds/Umeya_kun
Summary: In College Francois Dupont there was a foreign exchange program.Lila's lies were only getting worse, Marinette didn't know what to do. Nobody was listening to her, not even Adrien, who explicitly said that he had her back, stood up for her. Her only saving grace was that her parents had her back. So when Ms. Bustier announces that there is a foreign exchange program, what will she do? Stay in the place she has been hurt or go to a new one for a new beginning?





	1. Transfer

**Author's Note:**

> I might not characterize them correctly, I apologize. I'm not in the Batman fandom, I just found the ship and adored it, so I decided to join in.
> 
> Hope you enjoy the story!

"Now class, settle down!" Ms. Bustier called out, once everyone was quiet she smiled and continued, "We'll be having a foreign exchange form, if you want to sign up please stay after class or visit with me during lunch!"

The bell rang and the teacher dismissed us, the rest of the students were out of the room I walked up to her, "Ms. Bustier?"

"Yes, Marinette?"

"I would like to sign up for the program"

Ms. Bustier brightened, "Of course! I'm so happy at least one of my students want to!"

She gave me one of the sheets, I filled it out and went off to my next class, hopefully, Ms. Mendeleiev will be a little more forgiving than normal.

\-----------------------

~*~ a little over two days later~*~

"Can you believe it!?!?" a man shouted, he had dark eye bags and a large coffee mug in his hand, half-empty

"No~" another man drawled, his hair was black with a bit of white, "I honestly can't believe that we will be having a foreign exchange student coming to live with us even though we volunteered for it"

The man with dark eyebags glared at the other, "I don't need your sarcasm right now, Jason!"

The other man, Jason, just gave the other an unimpressed look before turning back to the tv.

The other grumbled and walked away before the youngest of the household walked in with a raised eyebrow.

"What's wrong with Drake?"

Jason waved him off, "He's just upset because we're going to have a foreign exchange student coming to live with us"

The youngest was confused, "But he's the one that offered to house one of them?"

Jason laughed, "Yeah, I know"

Damian just shook his head and was about to go about his day when a question popped into his head, "Wait, who are we going to be housing?"

Jason shrugged his shoulders, of course, he knew the answer but he wasn't about to tell Demon spawn that.

\-----------------------

"Be careful, sweetie!" Maman called

"I will, don't worry"

Maman and Papa had sad looks on their faces, "We'll miss you, don't get into too much trouble"

"Jeez, Papa, glad to know you don't have any faith in me," I joked

Papa laughed, Maman smiled.

"Oh, before we forget," Maman started, she reached behind her on the counter, "Take these with you," she handed the box to Marinette, "They're macaroons based off of the heroes in Gotham, share them with the people housing you, okay?"

I smiled back, "Of course!"

~*~

I get into my seat on the plane, plug in my earbuds and listen to Jagged Stone on the way there.

The plane ride was only a couple hours long, I exit the plane with my luggage and go to a waiting area, the people housing me had informed my parents and I that they would be coming to pick me up, or at least, their butler, Alfred, will.

I let out a small sigh and pause my music, after 10 minutes of waiting someone comes up to me.

"Miss Dupain-Cheng?" they ask

"Yes?" I reply

The man smiles and lends out his hand, "My name is Alfred, I am here to pick you up"

I smile back and take his hand, "Oh! Nice to meet you"

"Nice to meet you as well"

Alfred leads me to a limo parked outside the airport, opens the door and lets me inside.

The conversation on the way there was non-existent, I was too nervous to speak properly and I think Alfred figured that out and stayed silent on my behalf which I'm grateful for.

Then the car stopped and Alfred got out, I grabbed my luggage and made my way towards the door. Alfred opened the door for me which I was extremely grateful for, I had my hands full with my luggage and the box of macaroons.

\-------------------

Marinette exited the car with luggage in one hand and a box in the other, Alfred looked at both of her hands and decided it might be better to help her out.

"Miss Dupain-Cheng-"

"Marinette"

"Pardon?"

The girl smiled, "Call me Marinette"

Alfred smiled back, this girl will worm her way into the Waynes' hearts, he was sure of it.

"Of course, Miss Marinette, do you want some help?"

"No, thank you, I can carry my luggage myself, thanks for asking though, Alfred"

"You're quite welcome, Miss Marinette"

Alfred led Marinette to the door, only to find three of the four Wayne children standing outside of it.

Tim looked a bit peeved, but mainly tired and anxious.

Dick looked somewhat excited, but mainly calm and a little bored.

While Jason looked like he was going to burst with excitement.

Alfred sighed, "What are you three doing out here?"

All three of them turned to look at him. Jason answered first,

"We're here to greet the little lady! Now," he started looking around wildly, "Where is she?"

Alfred looked down at Marinette and had to contain a laugh, she looked like an angry chipmunk, it was adorable and the least threatening thing he's ever seen.

A few seconds later, Dick and Tim were laughing as well while Jason just continued to look around for the missing girl.

"J-*laugh*Jason, look d-*snort*down!" Dick said in-between laughs

Jason followed his instructions and his eyes landed on a pouting Marinette that was giving him a death glare.

Jason laughed, ruffled the girl's hair and said, "Sorry little lady, you were just too short for me to see"

Marinette grumbled something before shaking her head and smiling up at Jason.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Marinette"

Jason smirked, "I know, my name is Jason! Pleasure to finally meet you, little lady!"

Marinette looked expectantly over at the other two.

Tim sighed, "My name is Tim Drake, nice to meet you"

Dick went next, "My name is Dick Grayson, nice to meet ya"

"Demon Spawn isn't here right now but you'll meet him later!" Jason piped up

Then Alfred cleared his throat, "I do believe that it is late and Miss Marinette should be unpacking? It is a school night, after all, we wouldn't want her to stay up all night trying to unpack"

The boys, except Tim, grumbled about not being able to speak to her more before finally allowing them to go.

Alfred showed her where her room was, before he left she gave him the box of macaroons and asked him to give them to the Waynes and that she had one for him as well, she unpacked and lied in bed, talking to Tikki and hoping school would be better. By the time an hour passed Alfred knocked on her door and said dinner was ready, she was so lost in thought that she didn't realize how hungry she had gotten. She jumped out of the bed and walked with Alfred to the dining room.

There was one new face at the table, a boy around her age.

'That must be Demon spawn!' she thought to herself

"You can sit here, Miss Marinette," Alfred pointed to the chair next to Jason

"Okay," Marinette sat down

Jason turned to her and grinned before leaning down and whispering, "Do you wanna have some fun?~"

She turned to him and smirked mischievously, "What do you have in mind?"

"Well, I was thinking-"

"Enough scheming you two," Tim said causing Jason and Marinette to turn to him with lost looks

"Aw! But Tim~" Jason started, "We were just having fun~"

Marinette decided to stay silent even though she desperately wanted to say something as well.

She chose wisely

Tim glared at Jason, "Jason, I swear to god if you don't stop-"

Jason raised his hands up in defeat, "Alright, alright, sheesh"

Tim heaved out a sigh and went back to staring blankly at the table. It was clear he was stressed, about what, Marinette didn't know, but she was determined to make him feel better.

~*~

After dinner Alfred brought out the macaroons Marinette brought for them and dished them out, one hero for one person.

Demon spaw- Damian got Robin

Dick got Nightwing

Bruce got Batman

Jason got Red Hood

And Tim got Red Robin

Marinette respectfully declined one, saying she had enough of them at home before she left for her room. It was only when she collapsed on the bed that she realized she never got Demon Spawn's name.

She groaned, "Tikki, what am I going to do? I still don't know Demon Spawn's name!"

Tikki laughed, "It'll be fine, Marinette, you can just ask him in the morning, now go to bed, you have an early day tomorrow"

Marinette sighed but happily went to bed.


	2. How everyone felt about Marinette transferring

The class didn't know what to think. First Marinette was rude to Lila, and now Ms. Bustier was telling them that Marinette joined the program without telling them? What was going on with their class president?

Alya was the angriest, they were best friends, they told each other everything. She knows that recently Marinette was being kind of distant, but she didn't think anything of it, she thought Marinette was just jealous, petty, nothing more, nothing less. But now that she thinks of it, there is a small twinge of doubt. After all, when had Marinette ever accused someone else of being a liar, even when she was jealous? Never, well at least, not until Lila.

But Lila has no reason to lie, right? She wouldn't lie and betray our trust, right? No, she wouldn't, she's too nice for that! Then again, we all thought Marinette was too nice to falsely accuse someone so maybe we're wrong? No, no, what are we thinking? Marinette was just jealous or maybe she and Lila had a misunderstanding! Yeah, that's it! They just had a misunderstanding and Marinette is overreacting, once she comes back she'll realize how wrong she was and how cool Lila is.

\----------

Caline Bustier was out of the loop with her students, she has been for the past year, but can you really blame her? A year ago when Lila came to the class she told them all tales of extravagance, of course, Caline was skeptical, after all, on the file is says that her mother was just an ordinary ambassador, and her father was….well, dead. But even before he died, he was just an ordinary guy, he was an office worker with a higher than average salary, but that was it.

She was skeptical which was why she took Marinette's side when she called Lila out as a liar, but since she was a teacher, there was no direct way of getting involved besides going to the principal or calling the girl's mother, but she couldn't do that! That would bring more drama and humiliation to the girl, besides she didn't want anymore of her students being turned into akuma. However, despite her inner conflicts, she was against sitting back and letting Lila take control of her class, no matter what, when dealing with compulsive liars it's better to be upfront than round-about in confronting them. Especially if that liar just so happened to be Lila Rossi, on her file it also states a few past….accidents. Such as leading a fellow classmate to commit suicide, that was one of the reasons why she didn't initially want Lila in her class, she fought the principal for it, but he merely stated,

"I'm sure she's changed from that incident, her mother even said that she stayed locked up in her room for a few weeks after the incident"

And we left it at that, it's not like I could argue that she hadn't changed as I hadn't officially met her at the time, but for some reason her school picture gave me a bad feeling, as if a storm was brewing.

As for why she didn’t help afterwards, well what could she really do? She was too nice to ruin a young girl's future, although, she has had many thoughts about how to expose her.

Caline sighed, If only Lila was in Ms. Mendeleiev's class, she would set her straight.

But then she found out that Adrien also knew about Lila's lies. She had half a mind to encourage the blond to expose her, but then she overheard his conversation with Marinette and her thoughts and feelings towards that once bright student soured. Sure, for short term the high road is a good idea, but for long term? In long term it's only going to make things worse than they already were. But of course, Adrien is young, he's been isolated from others his age, if anything is father is to blame for not giving him adequate teaching on social norms.

\---------------------

Master Fu liked to believe he was a calm and rational person that looked at the world with a logical view, however, when Marinette told him of what Adrien and her class did to her? Oh, that was the breaking point. The black cat was supposed to protect and stand up for the ladybug in and out of mask, no matter if they knew the other's identity or not!

"I apologize Marinette, it seems I've made a grave mistake in choosing the black cat," Master Fu replied solemnly after Marinette finished retelling her story

Marinette shook her head, "No, Master Fu, it's fine, we're only human, we're allowed to make mistakes"

Master Fu gazed at her sadly, this girl who he has come to think of as a granddaughter has been bullied, abandoned, used by her so called friends, abandoned and guilt tripped by her own partner, and worst of all, not even given the time of day by the authority figures in her life or given the benefit of the doubt by the people she trusted most.

"Thank you, Marinette," Master Fu said quietly, "I have a plan, you're leaving for Gotham soon aren't you?"

Marinette nodded, "Yes, tomorrow afternoon is when I leave"

Master Fu hummed, "You can take Tikki with you"

"What?! But what about the-"

"You didn't let me finish," Master Fu fondly chastised, "You will be taking the horse miraculous with you, I have an akuma alert system with me, you can take that with you as well"

Marinette slowly nodded, "Okay, what is the horse kwami's name?"

Master Fu smiled, "His name is Kaalki"

"Kaalki, alright, got it, what does he eat?"

"Sugar cubes"

"Okay, that's not so hard to get, anything else I need to know?"

"When you need to activate him, say 'Hooves out' and when you want to stop the transformation say 'Hooves in', I believe that is all"

Marinette nodded, taking one last drink of her tea she set the empty cup down and bowed to Master Fu, "Thank you, I'll be sure to visit before I leave"

"I look forward to it, have a nice trip"

Marinette smiled, "I will"

Marinette left, Wayzz flew out and landed on Master Fu's shoulder.

"We have some talking to do and mistakes to fix," Master Fu said

Wayzz agreed

\------------------------

Tom and Sabine knew what they had to do. Marinette had come home close to tears for many, many days, all it took was Marinette coming home full on bawling for them to change their minds about everyone in the class, especially when she told them what was going on. They felt guilty, they knew something was up, they should've asked, they should've known it had something to do with her classmates. But they didn't and now their daughter was paying the price of their negligence.

Which is why when Marinette came home with a small smile and a flyer about a foreign exchange program in her hand they readily said yes, they would do anything to make their daughter happy again, even if that meant letting her go to America to live with strangers. After all, what else could they do, they didn't have enough money to move and even if she did manage to transfer to a different school there's no telling if she'll be bullied or not because of Lila's reign. They don't know where Lila's reign ends and they don't want to find out due to trial and error.

Of course, they were sad when they had to watch her leave but they were also glad to have her leave such a toxic environment.


	3. Adrien's POV on, well, everything so far

Adrien was upset, Marinette left, Ladybug was no where in sight, she wasn't even at patrol last night. With Marinette not there who else was he supposed to rant to?! He couldn't use one of his other classmates! Nino rooms with his younger brother, Alya, while she has a room to herself, wouldn't be the smartest choice to confide in, she'd just post it on the Ladyblog.

And none of his other classmates were nice enough to actually listen to him rant! Don't even get him started on the Lila problem!

Ever since Marinette left Lila has been acting as if she's 'queen of the castle' or something! She keeps getting into my personal space and completely ignores my feelings! She kissed my cheek and then sent a picture of it to everyone in the school! She keeps clinging onto my arm as if she's my girlfriend! She is obviously flirting with me in public as if to make a statement that I'm taken when I'm not! And the worst part of it all is that Nino and Alya encourage it! Fucking encourages it! Who does that?!

Oh well, I'll live with it until this whole Lila problem blows over, I can deal with it for a few more months. However, if this succeeds five months I'm leaving like Marinette did. I don't care if I have to go back to being homeschooled, anything is better than being near Lila.

I break out of my thoughts and look up, Alya and Lila were laughing about something, curious I peer over Alya's shoulder.

It's a picture of Marinette, she's with a group of boys, the tallest, and presumably oldest, one is using her as an arm rest, she's playfully glaring at him while the other three stare fondly at the two.

'Oh no, Marinette's….replacing us….' the thought appeared suddenly causing a sudden ache in my chest, I don't want to lose my best friend, and if that means going to where ever she is to retrieve her then so be it!

The plan will commence next week, father has an appointment in America, he's going to take Nathalie along with him, all I have to do is say I'm more interested in the fashion industry now and want to see American fashion with my own eyes. That'll get him, hook, line, and sinker, he's always wanted me to inherit the family business after all, I was just never interested.

I let a Chat Noir grin appear on my face, don't worry princess, your knight is coming for you……

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the short chapter, I wanted Adrien's thoughts to be a bit sinister and ominous but I didn't know how to do it without making him too OOC...
> 
> Also, his POV is set one week after Marinette transfers, keep that in mind!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the chapter!


	4. Marinette Rants

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I might have used Marinette to rant about the Chameleon episode....
> 
> The chapter is set on the day after Marinette arrives in Gotham, so none of the true bonding will happen until later.
> 
> Hope you enjoy the chapter!

_Marinette entered the classroom, all eyes were on her. It wouldn't have been that bad had the eyes not held such hatred, contempt, _ ** _loathing_ ** _. She glanced around at all of her classmates glaring at her with such intensity. Finally, her eyes landed on Lila who had her face covered as she fake sobbed with a smile, her eyes holding a dangerous, amused gleam._

_"Why are you doing this Lila?!" Marinette shouted_

_Alya stomped towards her, "Don't." she jabbed her finger at her chest, "Blame Lila, you're the only one at fault!"_

_"W-What are you talking about?"_

_Alya sneered, "Figures, just like you to forget what you did to us"_

_"I have no idea what you're talking about?"_

_Alya scoffed but showed Marinette her phone screen, it was filled with hateful messages from _ ** _her_ ** _ phone, but her phone didn't show those messages._

_"I didn't do this!" Marinette said, she grabbed out her phone and showed them her messages, the hateful ones weren't there, well not the hateful messages from _ ** _her_ ** _ at least_

_Alya huffed, "You really think we're going to believe you lies? Do you take us for idiots! It's obvious you deleted your messages to paint Lila as the bad guy! Again!"_

_Marinette was close to tears, how could Alya, her best friend, do this? Was this how she thought of Marinette? A lying, jealous, accuser?_

_"I, I didn't do it," she tried once more_

_This time the class, including Adrien, turned their back to her…_

_Then the scenery changed, she was in a dimly lit bathroom. The mirrors were coated in blood. There was a large glass shard in her right hand, dead bodies littered the ground, Marinette was wearing a smirk._

_"Please," Alya begged, "Please, I'll do anything! Please just stop"_

_"Oh, Alya~" Marinette cooed, "If you didn't believe me, then how am I supposed to believe you?" she slammed the glass shard into Alya's heart and everything turned black_

\-----------------------------------------

Marinette jolted up and into a fighting stance, on high alert, this wasn't the first time she's had that particular nightmare, but it is the first time it ended in such a gruesome way. Once she realized she was in her room in the Wayne's manor she calmed down.

"Marinette, are you okay?" Tikki asked

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, Tikki, just….had a nightmare is all"

Marinette glanced at her clock, 1:29 am, 'might as well stay up, it's not as if I'll be able to go back to sleep anytime soon anyway,' she mused

She turned on a lamp and got out her design book, flipped to a blank page and started to create a suit based off of her nightmare.

The fabric she planned to use for the vest was a deep, dark red that looked close to blood, outlined with black, the undershirt was to be a light gray with a black bat on the left breast, and finally the pants were to be black, near the cuffs was the same dark red as the vest.

She got started on designing it immediately. Suddenly she was thankful for her designer skills, otherwise she would have never been able to make it in Jason's size.

She finished making it as soon as it turned 5:50. She was proud of her work, especially since it took her half the time it normally would.

Then there was a knock on her door. She scrambled out of her chair and raced to the door. Opening it she saw a befuddled Alfred who obviously didn't expect her to be awake.

"Breakfast will be ready in 30 minutes," and with that Alfred turned to leave

"Oh wait!" she quietly called, Alfred stopped

"Do you need something, Ms. Marinette?"

"Yeah, I wanted to ask if Jason was up or not?"

Alfred smiled, "He's awake, he's in the living room"

"Oh, could you guide me there? I don't know the way"

"Of course"

"Great, just hold on I have to grab something!"

She went back into her room and grabbed the suit off of the mannequin.

"Okay, I grabbed it!"

Alfred looked down at the suit with a confused expression but didn't say anything as we made our way to the living room.

The first thing Marinette noticed was Tim downing a cup of coffee. She ignored it in favor of going over to Jason who was nodding off. Getting a devious plan in her mind she crept up behind him, cupped her hands and said,

"Jason!" a little over normal inside voice

He startled awake.

"What? What did I miss??"

Tim was slightly amused but turned his attention back to his coffee.

"Hey, Jason I made something for you!" Marinette said

Jason turned towards her with a grin, "Oh? Really, well let's see it!!"

She handed the suit over to Jason, who promptly lied it down on the coffee table and spread it out.

"_Holy shit,_" Jason said softly, "How the fuck???"

"I've been making my own clothes for the past 5 years"

Tim promptly spit out his coffee, "Holy shit! You're MDC!"

"Um, yes? But what does that have to do with anything?"

"YOU DESIGNED COVERS FOR JAGGED STONE HOW DOES THAT NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH THIS!?!"

"Probably because we're talking about fashion not my commissions"

"I," Tim started, taking in a deep breath, "Don't understand how you can be so calm when you KNOW JAGGED STONE PERSONALLY, LIKE HOLY SHIT!"

"You're a big fan of Jagged aren't you?"

"The. Biggest," Tim says seriously

"Words of advice, don't bring cats near him or Penny, Penny is allergic and Jagged will probably hate you for all eternity if you harmed Penny in any way, intentional or not," Marinette said

"Okay, I can do that, anything else?" Tim asked, grabbing out a notepad and writing something down

"Don't be afraid of Fang, he's like a dog with scales and he can smell fear"

"Go on"

"Try to be 'ROCK 'N ROLL' as Jagged put it"

"What?"

"Try to be creative, like, adapt a Jagged Stone type mindset and he'll love you," Marinette explained, she thought for a second, "Yeah, that's all I can say"

Tim then realized something, "Hey, Marinette?"

"Yeah?"

"When did you find the time to make Jason's suit?"

"Oh, well I woke up around 3am because of a nightmare and became super inspired so I just made it," she replied as she gestured to the suit that Jason was now wearing

'How did he change so fast??' Marinette asked herself, of course she never got the answer

She turned back to Tim who was studying the floor intently.

"So, you went to bed at 9?"

Marinette nodded

"And you woke up at 1?" 

Marinette nodded again, confused

"So, you got 4 hours of sleep?"

"On a school night?"

"Well, I'm actually not used to getting as much sleep, usually I run on 1 or 2 hours, 3 if I'm lucky"

"Kid, what the fuck?? You're supposed to get at least 8 hours of sleep every night??"

"I had too many responsibilities," Marinette responded

"Like what?" Jason demanded, seems he was eavesdropping on the conversation

"Well, there were commissions, my own personal projects, homework, self-defense lessons, working at the bakery, hanging out with Kagami, Luka and Chloe, meditation," Marinette listed off, "Yeah, that's about it"

"You're like, what 15?" Jason asked

Marinette nodded

"Then why the hell do you have so many responsibilities??"

Tim was curious as well, if you give each activity 1 hour plus 8 hours of school each day sans weekends that would be 15 hours in whole leaving only 9 hours for other activities, including sleeping. Which also means that she would only have 1 hours of living before going to sleep and doing the same thing over again, which means she must take time out of sleeping to spend time with her family.

Marinette looked between the two brothers before nervously bringing her hand up to her neck, "Well, I wasn't always that busy," her voice took on a wistful tone, "It sort of all started in the beginning of middle school, at first it was just helping my parents out with the bakery, doing a few side projects and school work," her eyes gained a clouded look, her face the embodiment of nostalgia, "then, when Hawkmoth appeared everything slowly started going downhill," there was a slight anger in her voice that shook both the boys to their core, that anger was of the same magnitude as Damian's used to be, "He started turning my classmates and strangers into temporary villains, using their negative emotions to manipulate them into doing his dirty work, it's similar to brainwashing in way, the victims never remember what they did afterwards, it's an unspoken rule to never tell them, most of my classmates go to therapy for it, all of Paris collectively agreed that we all had to learn at least the basics of self-defense, I've never been 'akumatized' so to say, but I have had a few close calls, especially after _Lila Rossi_ showed up," she spat the other girl's name as if it was something disgusting

"Who's Lila Rossi?" Tim asked, sue him, he was curious

"A better name for her would be Lie-la Rossi, she's a compulsive liar that made it her duty to take my friends away from me," Marinette replied

"Although, I guess they never really were my friends," she mused, "Not with how quickly they disregarded me"

"I take it things went to shit when Lie-la was there?"

Marinette nodded, "It all started when she re-transferred to the school - she went there before but she was only there for a day, some family issues or something - before I got to school everything was normal, I get to school and there's a seating re-arrangement that I, the student representative, wasn't notified about, I had no problem moving to accommodate a disabled student, really I didn't, but when my supposedly best friend forces me to sit in the back without notifying me beforehand I was understandably angry," she paused to take in a deep breath and calm herself down, "Then, then Lila came in, said she got tinnitus from saving Jagged Stone's cat, he never had a cat, and for the record, they wouldn't allow anyone on the runway when a plane is about to take off!" she ranted, "Anyway, I point this out and then everyone sort of turns on me and starts thinking I'm the bad guy, now normally I would feel bad about doing this, especially since I supposedly had no 'evidence' as Alya put it, however, I, at the time, was in continuous contact with Jagged, I knew for a fact he never had a cat, Penny is allergic and he wouldn't endanger her for something as 'un-ROCK 'N ROLL' as a cat, no seriously, that was literally his response," she shows the two brothers her phone, they nod and gesture for her to continue, "Anyway, I try to show my classmates this but then 'here comes Lila with the crocodile tears' making almost everyone in my class go to comfort her while still leaving me as the bad guy"

Marinette took in a deep breath, "Then, the worst part of it all, one of my bestest friends knew she was lying but told me to take the high road because, and I quote, 'her lies aren't hurting anyone' and oof, if that wasn't a stab to the heart because moments before Lila threatened me in a bathroom! The fucking bathroom! What are we in, an anime! C'mon Lila get original!" she calmed down, "Sorry I was getting off-topic"

"No, no it's fine," Jason said, and it was fine, she was allowed to have feelings, to rant, it's not like he didn't find this a little amusing, besides, he too was stewing in anger, it's only been a day since he's met Marinette but if anything happened to her he would kill everyone in Gotham and then himself

"Okay, where was I? Right, well after he told me to take the high road I decided to humor him because well, he was homeschooled before and very sheltered because of his negligent father, he didn't quite realize that lies did hurt people, he's only dealt with lies of the media, not the lies of a bully," Marinette continued, "However, two days after that, my biggest tormentor, Chloe, left for New York, of course I was happy, I celebrated, as did most of my other classmates, Adrien, however, chastised us for being happy that she left, as if she didn't bully any of us for years, I could excuse that, they were childhood friends after all, he probably just held a soft spot for her since he knew her since childhood, I could not excuse him taking the side of a liar over me, who he explicitly told that he would have my back, but no, he always takes the side of the tormentor, always, even when he knows what they're doing isn't right, it's the tormentor over the victim"

"That's fucked up," Tim murmured

"Damn right," Jason agreed

"To make matters worse, my best friend Alya and childhood friend Nino, didn't believe me when I tried to tell them, yeah I know I already said this, but seriously, during lunch that day Lila was lying about how she had a sprained wrist and all that so I threw a balled up napkin at her, she caught it with her 'injured' hand and it was only when I called her out on it that she winced and lied that she had to or else 'it would've gouged Max's eye out' Max wears _glasses_! Fucking glasses! And she says it could've 'gouged his eye out'??? The worst part is, is that they believed it! My entire train of thought at that point was 'wow, I'm surrounded by idiots' and 'I wonder if being akumatized lowers your IQ' because how does the class' smartest kid just believe that his eye could have been gouged out by a balled up napkin?!"

"Did anything else of importance happen?" Tim asked

"Yeah, Lila threatened me again but this time it was on the Eiffel tower, she threatened to push me off and I replied with 'do it, I fucking dare you' and then when she didn't do it and backed off I said, 'I knew you didn't have the guts to do it' before walking out"

"How the hell did you do something badass when your life was being threatened??" Jason asked

"My life was threatened almost everyday back in Paris," she said with a slight fondness, "The only difference between Lila and the akuma was that the akuma were likeable and 100x more dangerous than Lila could ever be"

"What the actual ever loving fuck are you guys talking about??" they all looked over to see a confused and worried Dick standing in the doorway

"Oh nothing, I was mainly ranting until I got to the differences between akuma and Lila," Marinette answered simply

"I have a question," Jason announced

"Go for it," Marinette said

"Have you ever fought one of the akuma directly?"

"Yeah about 5 times," Marinette answered, leaving Jason, Tim and Dick a little shocked, "There was one time when one of my classmates got akumatized and asked me out on a date, I agreed to go on one and contacted the heroes, they made a plan using me as a distraction, of course, Ladybug couldn't be there, something else was happening at the time," Marinette's gaze turned dark, "But Chat Noir was there, we defeated him and now we never talk about it, like ever, mainly because it was sort of embarrassing to talk about"

"Wait, you've fought with akuma 5 times? And went on a date with one for a plan??" Dick asked

"Yep, pretty much"

"Okay, let me just say," Dick clasped his hands together, breathed in deep, and said, "What the _fuck_??"

"Can I ask another question?" Jason asked

"You just did, but you may proceed," Marinette said

Jason laughed a little before clearing his throat, "In your opinion, would you say Paris' heroes are good heroes?"

"Oh," Marinette said, "Well, Ladybug is a good hero, she keeps things professional, always the first on the scene, the last to leave, and she doesn't needlessly put civilians in danger," she started, "Chat Noir, however, I don't think he's a good hero"

"Care to elaborate?" Tim asked

"Well for one, he continually harasses Ladybug by flirting with her at inopportune times, pushes his affections on her even when she has rejected him so many times, he pouted when she didn't show up for a 'date' that he set up even when she said she wasn't going to be there, he constantly puts himself before others, like during Syren when the entirety of Paris was being submerged in water he pouted like a child because Ladybug rejected him, he refused to help her defeat the akuma, she had to get outside help to defeat it, 5 civilians nearly died and yet Chat Noir didn't step in to help at all, in fact, he even seemed annoyed that the akuma was even defeated, as if he wanted to use the akuma to prove some point!" she ranted

Jason, Tim, and Dick were shocked, they hadn't expected Chat Noir to be so bad, when she was talking about him during the 'date with an akuma' thing she spoke fondly of him, what changed, what happened for her to be so cross with him.

"Is there anything else?" Dick probed

"Did he do anything to you?" Jason asked

"Don't even get me started," Marinette said in response to Jason's question, Jason pushed her to continue, "After the Evilistrator, when I went on a 'date' with an akuma, accident he occasionally dropped by my house to check up on me, at first I found it sort of endearing, I treated him like I would my friends, then a little after he started ranting to me about Ladybug, I let him even if I was on Ladybug's side during most of his rants, but then, then he had the audacity to try and make a move on me, of course, being the impulsive person I am I pushed him off the railing and blankly watched as he plummeted to the ground, I was fully prepared to become a murderer, sadly, Chat Noir survived and was mainly uninjured"

"I like how the first thing to go through your mind when you pushed a hero off a railing was that you were prepared to become a murderer and not 'oh no, what have I done, I could've killed him' like a normal person would think," Jason commented

"Yeah, at that point of time I honestly couldn't give two shits about the guy, it was like my feelings towards Hawkmoth went to him instead, because after that I could actually stand Hawkmoth and was actually quite grateful whenever he sent out akuma during school hours…" she paused, "Although, that might have been due to the fact that school was always shut down when akuma attacked"

"I could relate," Jason said, "Whenever Joker or Penguin attack everything is usually always canceled, although, I go to work not school"

"Breakfast is served," Alfred called out from the dining room

"It's been 30 minutes already?" Marinette asked in shock, the other three were shocked too, had they really been talking for that long?

They got up and went to the dining room. Bruce was already sitting at the far end. Once they sit down he looks up and says,

"I presume you all slept well?"

"Yep," Marinette says chipperly

Tim sends her a glare, "You woke up at 1 am because of a nightmare"

"Yeah but that was my own mind doing that to me, everything else was great!" She retorts

Tim stares at her blankly, she returns the look. After 5 minutes another person walked in and cleared their throat. Their head swiveled to the other person simultaneously. To Marinette's surprise it was Demon Spawn.

Demon Spawn narrowed his eyes and glanced between the two, "What's going on here?"

"I was pointing out the truth," Tim replies

"You were judging my inability to sleep," Marinette shoots back

"One does not simply wake up at 1 in the morning because of a nightmare and say that they slept well!"

"Apparently you haven't met anyone in Paris," she replies

"All of Paris does that?" Tim asks

"Yeah many of them have nightmares because they either are traumatized by the fact that at any moment one of their loved ones - or even themselves - could be turned into one of Hawkmoth's pawns or they've seen some of the shit that akuma do and worry that one day it'll be them doing that, one day it'll be their family that has to suffer, one day their heroes will fail to save them and they'll have to reap the consequences"

Somewhere in the background you could hear someone say, "oof" and that was the end of conversation until Alfred came out with breakfast.

"Here's your food," Alfred said as he dished everyone

A chorus of 'Thank you, Alfred's was heard.

Everyone was eating, mood solemn because Marinette told everyone of the one reality they didn't want to acknowledge, that even heroes sometimes fail and make mistakes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I made a discord server, https://discord.gg/ccenxH this is the link if you want to join..


	5. First day at a new school

After breakfast the mood lightened thanks to Alfred's efforts. Everyone went to their rooms to finish getting ready, Marinette decided that since this was a new beginning she might as well start leaving her hair down, another factor in that choice could've been that her old hairstyle reminds her too much of her old friends, but who can really say?

Thankfully, the school her and Demon Spawn go to doesn't have uniforms so she can dress however she wants, but they don't allow bags or purses, so that's a downside.

She slips on a dark red t-shirt, blue jeans, and a black jacket, to complete her new look she puts on her dark blue tennis shoes, sure her outfit might not show as much color as she would've liked but it was definitely an upgrade from how she used to dress, at least, it was in her opinion.

"Are you sure this is what you want, Marinette?" Tikki asks, but Marinette knows Tikki isn't trying to change her mind, she's only making sure this will actually make her chosen happy

Marinette smiles down at Tikki, "Yes, I'm sure, this transfer is already doing wonders for me!" she exclaims, "I got more than 2 hours of sleep for once! I feel more alive than I have in past year"

Tikki smiles up at her chosen, "Then, I'm glad we made this choice"

"I am as well," Kaalki, the horse kwami, agreed, he was quiet for the most part, only really talking when absolutely necessary or he had a point to make

Marinette smiles at the two kwami, "Okay, you two ready for a day at school?"

The two nod, she puts them in a hidden pocket on her jacket, she also put two cookies and a few sugar cubes in there for them to eat during the day. She walks back to the living room, Jason, Tim, and Drake are all there.

She walks up to them, that's when she remembers, she still doesn't know Demon Spawn's name.

"Hey, Jason?"

The boy in question hums in response, "What's Demon Spawn's name?" she asks, her voice getting quieter with each word

Jason laughs in shock, "You don't know Demon Spawn's name??"

Marinette averts her eyes nervously, "No"

Jason starts laughing again, "Oh my god, have you been calling him Demon Spawn in your head this entire time??"

Marinette looks away again, this time a small blush covering her cheeks.

"Maybe"

Jason let out another bout of laughter and that's when Demon Spawn decided to walk in.

He looked between Jason and Marinette, "What're you laughing about?"

Marinette promptly looks away, avoiding eye contact. Jason, on the other hand, clutches his stomach as he regains control of his breathing.

"She didn't know your name," Jason replies in between breaths, "So she's been calling you Demon Spawn this entire time in her head because that's what I called you"

"Why is that so funny?" Demon Spawn asked

"Because, she was calling you something that no one in Gotham would dare call you, well, except me that is, and she was doing it without fear of what could happen if she was caught," Jason took in a deep breath, "Anyways, you two have school now, don't you?"

Marinette and Damian nodded, it was only after she entered the car that she realized, Jason never told her what Demon Spawn's name was.

"Hey, uh, Demon Spawn?" Marinette asked

Demon Spawn looked at her aghast.

"What's your name? Jason never told me the answer, he only laughed"

Demon Spawn put his hand on his face and sighed, then he mumbled something incoherently.

"What was that?"

"It's Damian, my name is Damian," he replied

"Nice to meet you, Damian!" Marinette said

"Yeah, about that, I don't know your name either, I didn't pay attention during dinner when Alfred said your name"

"Oh, my name's Marinette!"

Damian gives her a small smile, "Nice to meet you"

Marinette gives him a smile bright enough to light up the entire car, the rest of the car ride is spent in pleasant silence.

They reach the school a while after. Damian uses the 10 extra minutes they have to show Marinette where a few of her classes are.

The bell rings and they rush off to class, the teacher is surprised to see the new girl with Damian, he would have expected her to be lost in the school and Damian was never the social type.

"Glad you two could make it," the teacher said, "Take your seats"

The teacher silently watches as Damian grabs the new girl by the wrist and makes her sit down next to him, all the while the teacher is internally freaking out because who the hell was that and what did they do to Damian???

The rest of the students are surprised as well, but they wisely don't say anything.

The next thing Marinette can remember happening is going to her 5th class of the day and it suddenly being over only for lunch to be served, she feels as though everything moved too fast to comprehend. Damian was standing next to her, the two making idle conversation.

"What do you think of the Gotham heroes?" Marinette asked as they walked to an empty table

Damian's face turned into a scowl, "Most of them are very annoying, Nightwing, Red Robin, and Red Hood are the annoying ones, Robin is okay, I guess"

Damian spared her a glance, "What about you?"

"Huh?"

"What do you think about the Gotham heroes?"

"They have horrible fashion sense, the cloth they use for their suits is obviously cheap but it's the type of cheap that looks rich, same with the villains, Robin's suit makes him look like a traffic light, not even going to apologize, what was Batman thinking when he had it designed??"

Damian felt a pang of empathy for Bruce, if only he could hear what Marinette was saying about his fashion sense….

"Don't even get me started on-"

Then a group of 4 people sat down across from them. Two of them were smiling brightly, one was slightly smirking, and the last one was reading a book.

"Oh, are you reading 'The Tell-Tale Heart'?!" Marinette asks the one reading

The boy looks up surprised, but pleased, "Yes, I'm surprised, not many people know it, much less foreigners"

"I used to read it all the time! It was probably my favorite book since 4th grade!"

The boy and Marinette were soon talking in a language only they understood, it was fanboy/fangirl language as the other three put it. Damian sat there, brewing in his dissatisfaction.

Then he heard one of the newcomers, the girl, mutter something similar to, "She's adorable"

He found himself silently agreeing with her, before realizing what exactly it was that he just thought.

'Wait- no- I would never- I'm Damian Wayne! I'm supposed to be cold, brooding, and antisocial! I'm killing my own image!'

Oblivious to Damian's inner freak-out, the boy - they soon learned his name was Felix - and Marinette were in their own little world conversing about modern literature and how much it's changed over time.

~*~

Allegra - the girl - Claude - one of the other boys - Allan - the one who was smirking - and Felix hung out with Marinette and Damian for the rest of the day, Felix and Marinette soon declared that they are now honorary siblings, Allegra admitted to seeing an uncanny resemblance between Marinette and her younger sister, Allan and Marinette spent at least three classes making snide comments to each other, and Claude and Marinette were so dramatic during the last class period that the teacher almost kicked them out. All in all, it was a very eventful day.

Damian and Marinette waited patiently for Alfred to arrive only for Jason and Dick to come riding up to the school on motorcycles and beckoning them to join.

Marinette noticed them and dragged an unwilling, unamused Damian along with her.

"What are you two doing here?" Marinette asked curiously

Jason gave her a smile that bordered being a smirk, "Well, Alfred had some business to do so he told me and Dick to come down and pick you two up!"

"Oh, okay!" Marinette hopped onto the back of Jason's motorcycle

Damian on the other hand, was silently freaking out, he knew Jason wasn't going to be driving safely and for Marinette to be riding with him when she wasn't used to going high speeds was going to be dangerous, he tried to voice his concerns when Dick picked him up and plopped him onto the back of his motorcycle.

Then they started off, Damian was still worried but when he looked over to Jason and Marinette - who were about 3 or 4 cars ahead of them - he found his worries unprecedented, Marinette actually looked to be having fun.

"Hey, Grayson, go faster, I want to catch up to them"

Dick smirked, "Aye, aye"

And with that they were racing to catch up to Jason and Marinette. Once they got closer they heard Marinette say,

"Hey, Jason, is it possible for you to go faster?"

Jason grinned, "Oh you know it! Hang on girlie!"

In seconds they were racing away, Damian blinked and they were already 3 blocks away, and Marinette was enjoying it, she wasn't even hurt by going at speeds that would normally give a normal person whiplash!

Dick laughed and Damian looked over at him, he had a fond look on his face, "They're so alike it's not even funny, although, Marinette is definitely less snarky-"

"I wouldn't say that if I were you"

"What?"

"Her not being snarky would be a lie and she doesn't like lies, she loathes them"

"Oh~" Damian hated the teasing tone Dick had, "And how would you know that?"

"Marinette made friends with one of the snarkiest people I've ever met and out-snarked them"

Dick laughed, "Yeah right, I'll believe that when I see it"

Damian could only hope Dick wouldn't tell Marinette and issue a challenge.

Unfortunately, Dick was not known to keep his mouth shut about his opinions, luckily, he didn't tell Marinette, he told Jason, unluckily, Jason told Marinette and she sassed and snarked both of them into oblivion.

One of Damian's favorite line from Marinette was, "And here I thought you were the older brother, turns out you're the 3 year old in a 20-year-old-something's body" it was mainly because she said it to Jason

Once it was all over and done with, Damian walked up to Dick and Jason and said, "I told you not to tell her, and what did you do?"

They both sighed and simultaneously answered, "We told her"

"And what did you two learn?"

"That Marinette can snark us into oblivion"

"What else?" Damian prompted

"She's sassy"

"And?"

They sighed again and defeatedly replied, "Damian was right"

"Yep!" and with that Damian walked off with a smug smirk

~*~

A few hours later, at 7 pm, Alfred called everyone down to have dinner. The dining room was filled with chatter, it was mainly Jason and Dick telling everyone about Marinette being snarky and sassy.

Tim didn't believe them, Bruce was apprehensive about thinking she could, after all, she was the sweetest, kindest person he's ever met. Marinette changed their minds by passive-aggressively snarking them with the tiniest hint of sass.

Nobody doubted what Marinette could do, although, they still wouldn't believe anyone if they said she was being mean to them for no reason, because with Marinette if she's rude to you it's because you were rude or mean first.

Besides, the Waynes are loyal, they wouldn't take the word of a complete stranger over that of Marinette, unlike certain people.

After dinner Marinette went to her room.

Tikki and Kaalki exit the pocket in her jacket.

"Marinette," Tikki says softly

Marinette hums questioningly in response

"Be careful the next couple days," Kaalki finished, "The butterfly is acting up, we don't know what's happening"

Marinette nodded and grabbed one of her sketch books. An hour passed before she decided to put the book down and go to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Discord: https://discord.gg/saZFwSa


	6. Old friends, past love, and new beginnings

_It was dark, oh, so dark, there was nothing, nothing, until she heard it, the screaming, the yelling, the cries of pain. She looked around the inky darkness wildly, she couldn't see anything but she could hear everything, the screams,_

_"Ladybug, help us!"_

_"Look out!"_

_"Oh god, ru-"_

_"NO! No, not her, please not her!"_

_"You'll be okay, Sabrina, I promise, just clench your teeth and if you have to scream, it'll be over in a minute, then we'll be able to get you to a hospital, I swear"_

_The buildings crashing, some with people still inside,_

_*crash*_

_*rumble*_

_"If we don’t make it, just know, I'll always love you"_

_*crush*_

_*splat*_

_The akuma laughing at them, my teammates crying for the ones they couldn't save, the frustration finally getting to them, they ran head-first into the battle, it was a miracle we even won in the end._

_The miraculous cure restored most of the damage, but sadly, that day we learned not even the miraculous cure could bring a person back from the dead. That day, the heroes hung their heads low while the civilians grieved over the loss of their loved ones,_

_"I wasn't able to tell her, I love her"_

_"If only I was a little faster, I could've saved us both"_

_"What did we do to deserve this?"_

_"Don't do this to yourself, she wouldn't want this, you and I both know that"_

_"Sabrina," Chloe- no Queen Bee, called out, we heard a weak reply, "I'm so sorry, I wasn't fast enough-" her body was shaking, Sabrina put a finger to her lips and said,_

_"Don't apologize for something you had no control over, it's fine, I'm still alive aren't I?"_

_Chloe burst out in tears, muttering 'I'm sorry's like rapid fire_

\---------------------------------

Marinette woke up in a crying panic, tears ran down her face as she tried to forget her nightmare, that akuma was one of the worst they faced, there were 12 casualties, 7 dead, 5 injured. Once she regained herself, her mind wandered back to the subject,

'Most of them - Alya, Nino, and Chloe - resigned from their hero position and opted to stay low for a while

That akuma battle was one year ago, Master Fu and I decided to wipe away the civilian's memories of that battle, if they lost someone then we would recreate the memory as a car crash or failed burglary, they didn't need to remember the heartbreak and trauma that akuma caused,' she distantly heard Kaalki ask her what was wrong,

'Chat Noir, Master Fu, Kagami, Luka, and I are the only ones who remember that battle, well, I'm sure Hawkmoth remembers it too, but we can never be too sure. The akuma's name was Distant Galaxy, he could obliterate anything he wished, but he could also bring whatever he wanted back, the reason why he was akumatized was he lost his wife and son in a tragic accident, he wanted them back, Hawkmoth took advantage of that.

In fact, his wife, a month or two before was Mourning Star, she lost her daughter due to a miscarriage, she was also one of the very few akuma who caused more damage than the miraculous cure could reverse. I guess that's why his akuma name didn't really match his power, it was his wife's influence, she was strong, he was even stronger, the only difference was the amount of people they lost, the wife lost a daughter while the husband lost a wife and a son, the greater loss meant greater grief which in turn, meant greater power, makes sense, I guess.'

"Marinette, please answer, you're scaring me, Tikki what do I do?" Kaalki was freaking out

"I'm fine," Marinette answered quickly, "I'm fine, just a nightmare, a very bad nightmare but still a nightmare all the same"

"Well, it's only 4 am, what do you want to do?" Kaalki asked

"Uh, I'll just do the homework I was too tired to do yesterday," Marinette said

"Marinette!" Tikki chastised, "If you keep doing your homework in the mornings then one day you're going to forget to do it!"

Marinette smiled sheepishly, "Sorry, sorry, it's just, I was too tired to do it yesterday, so many things happened, first I became friends - wait are we friends??? - with Damian, made 4 more friends, had a snarking competition with Allan, sassed Jason and Dick, and then Jason and I raced Dick and Damian back to the manor via motorcycle, so much happened in just one day, it was almost too much"

Tikki's features softened, "I know, Marinette, but you can't keep doing homework in the morning, what're you going to do when there's an akuma attack and you only have a few more minutes before you have to go to school to get ready?"

"I totally forgot akuma were still a thing for a second there," Marinette replies with a laugh

Tikki glares half-heartedly at her chosen, "That isn't funny, Marinette"

Marinette just giggles and starts on her homework, she finishes in about half an hour later.

She checks the clock, 5:15, she still had about an hour left until Alfred will come get her. She sighs, she doesn't know what to do, she's bored, she looks over to Kaalki and gets an idea.

"Hey, Kaalki?"

Kaalki's head shot up, picking up her intentions he warily asked, "What?"

Marinette, putting on her best 'kitten' eyes, asked, "Can you make a portal to Paris for me? I want to visit the place again, I promise I'll have you send me back after 30 minutes!"

Kaalki tried to resist but failed, "Fine, I'll let you go, if and only if you bring Tikki with us"

"Deal!"

With that, Kaalki begrudgingly made a portal to Paris, but before they were able to go through, Jason burst into the room in a panic.

"Marinette!"

Marinette squawked, flailing her arms around to try and catch herself, once balanced she replied, "What do you need Jason?"

"I was going to sa- oh what's that?"

"A po- Nothing I mean nothing, that is definitely not a portal to Paris! Nope no portal here!" she panicked

Jason just looked at her, "_Right_~" he said skeptically, "That's definitely not a magic portal, nope, just my_ imagination_~"

Marinette sighs, "Fine, it's a portal-"

"Yeah, I already know that, what I want to know is why and how it's even here"

"Well, uh," Marinette turns her head to face Tikki, "Tikki can I tell him?"

"Yeah," Tikki said, "We've already been exposed"

"Okay," she turned back to Jason who was even more confused than before, "So there are these creatures called Kwami and basically they're magic, anyway one of the two kwamis with me is called Kaalki and he created the portal for me so I could visit Paris real quick, do you want to come with so I can explain a bit more?"

Jason nodded, too bewildered to do anything else.

They walked through the portal, once they were through Kaalki closed it and fell into Marinette's hand in an exhausted heap. Marinette looked down at him and couldn't help but feel bad.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Kaalki, I'll get you a dozen sugar cubes to make up for it"

"It's fine," Kaalki said exhaustedly, "Besides you might want to explain things to Jason before anything else"

"Right!" Marinette took Jason's hand, "This is Kaalki," she shows him the horse kwami and then grabs Tikki, "And this is my actual kwami, Tikki"

"Wait, wait, wait, does this mean you're-"

"Yes, I am Ladybug, I needed to get out of a toxic environment, it was starting to affect my hero work, I couldn't let that happen so I decided to take up the foreign exchange program, I was fully prepared to give Tikki up if only for a short while but thankfully Master Fu let me keep her and even gave me Kaalki so I can come when an akuma attacks"

"But how do you know when an akuma attacks?"

"Oh, Master Fu gave me a small device that notifies me when there is an akuma"

"Ah, I see"

"Also, Jason?"

"Yeah?"

"Please, oh please, don’t tell the others, this has to be kept a secret! At least for now, I'm not ready for them to know quite yet"

Jason grins, "Of course, Mari!"

Marinette smiles, "Good, now, do you want to look around?"

"Oh definitely"

They roam around, in Paris it was around 1 in the afternoon, thankfully, Kaalki transported them to an alleyway that no one goes through.

Then they bump into one of the people Marinette wanted to avoid.

"Marinette!" Adrien said happily, before scowling, "Who's this and how did you two get here?"

"That's for me to know and for you to never find out," Marinette replied coolly

Adrien didn't answer, he just continued to scowl at Jason, Marinette was done with his attitude.

"Jason come on, I have to show you my favorite place in Paris"

Jason hummed and followed Marinette, leaving a brooding Adrien behind.

Once they were far away enough Jason asked, "So, who was that?"

"An old friend and ex-classmate"

"Ah, I see"

"Yeah, the fucked up part is that I only just now realized he was Chat Noir"

"Wait what?!?!"

"I just now realized he was Chat Noir, he had the same look in his eyes as Chat Noir did when he attempted to make a move on me and then he looked almost exactly like Chat Noir when he scowled at you, it was like he was looking at Hawkmoth"

"Are you sure you should be telling me his identity?"

"Yeah, it's fine, after all Master Fu is already planning to take his miraculous away, or at least that's what Kaalki told me a couple nights ago before I went to Gotham"

Jason just nodded, "So, how long until we get to your 'favorite place'?"

"Oh, well actually I was just going to take you to my parents' bakery but now that I think about it they might ask questions"

"Wait, they don't know?"

Marinette shook her head, "No, I couldn't tell them, everyone in Paris is at risk of being akumatized and we don't know if Hawkmoth can look through a person's memories or thoughts, I didn't want to uselessly risk myself and family for something that could be easily avoided, well I guess that's not entirely true, after all, Luka and Kagami know"

"I…I guess that makes sense, but why would you tell me then?"

"Well, we're in America, Hawkmoth won't be able to get us there"

Jason nodded, "Yeah, I guess that's right"

Marinette led Jason to the Eiffel tower, "This is the place with the best view, although most citizens don’t know that since after akuma arrived they were banned from coming up here"

Jason was confused, "Why did they ban it?"

"Something about how people's fear of heights could be more fuel to akuma and that it should be avoided so they banned it, it actually worked in our favor more than I thought it would, without people on the Eiffel tower we didn't have to worry about what would happen when akuma climbed it"

Jason turned back to the view, it was breathtaking, not in the way that it is beautiful but more in the way that you realize just how insignificant you are in a world full of people who have done more and are better than you.

It was sort of depressing really, Jason mused, being so used to thinking of yourself as at the top of the food chain only to have that belief so abruptly knocked out of you by the sight the Eiffel tower gave you.

"What exactly were you planning on doing when you got here?" Jason asked, he was curious, so far the girl showed no actual reason to go back to Paris besides sight-seeing places she used to see everyday of her life

"Well, if I'm being honest I mainly came here because I was bored," Jason let out a chuckle at that, "But other than that I guess I wanted to make sure Paris was actually, you know, okay without me here to save the day, if this happened a year ago Paris would've been obliterated," Marinette says with a huff  


"Wait a minute, if you're Ladybug then that means, Chat Noir was harassing you and then when you showed no sign of accepting his affections he turned to civilian you and tried to make a move on you?!"

Marinette gives a humorless, bitter laugh, "Yeah, he moved on from me just to go to, well, me, it's quite weird actually, this whole secret identity thing, I mean I'm pretty sure that if I had known who Chat Noir was a while ago then I might have given him a chance but that was only because I had a crush on Adrien-"

"Wait, you used to have a crush on Adrien? The guy who quite literally turned his back on you for a liar, multiple times might I add, and sided with your childhood bully of four to five years over you and your classmates?"

"Yeah," Marinette said sheepishly, "I admit I didn't really have taste back then, but don't worry, that crush died the day Lila arrived and he told me to take the high road!"

"Alright, speaking of crushes," Jason gained a little smirk, "Did anyone have a crush on you?"

Marinette nodded, "Yeah, there was Nathaniel - he's with Marc right now, but I don't think it's working out since Lila is there - Luka - although right now I think he has a thing for Kagami - Nino - he's now dating Alya - and - wait do crushes on Ladybug count?"

Jason thought for a moment before nodding, "Okay then, Thomas - he sculpted a sculptor of both Chat Noir and I - Chat Noir - aka Adrien - and like half of Paris"

"Half of Paris?" Jason asked

"Yeah, it's mainly like a celebrity crush for some and- oh my god I totally forgot Chloe used to have a crush on Ladybug"

Jason laughed, "How can you forget that your ex-rival - made friend used to have a crush on Ladybug aka you!?"

"Probably because after we became friends we decided not to talk about it since it was embarrassing for the both of us"

"Yeah that makes sense"

Soon after they decided to go pay a visit to Luka and Kagami. Thankfully those two were having a sleepover at Luka's house.

"Hey guys!" Marinette greeted

The two startled and looked over at the window there, in all her glory, was Marinette.

Kagami was the first to react, she got up and sprinted towards Marinette before crushing her in a hug. Luka came next, wrapping his arms around the two.

"Missed you too guys but seriously I'm having trouble breathing," Marinette choked out

Kagami and Luka sheepishly let go.

"Sorry," they muttered simultaneously

"It's fine, anyway, I have someone I want you two to meet!"

The two looked at her curiously, "Who?"

Marinette ran over to the window, craned her neck up and said, "Jason, they want to meet you!"

She took a step back and Jason swung in.

"So these are your two friends!" Jason said, "You all have blue hair, well, the boy - Luka, that was his name right? - has cyan hair but that's besides the point"

"Marinette, who is that?" Kagami asked defensively

"Oh, that's Jason, he's one of the people I'm staying with over in Gotham"

"Ah, so you got sent to Gotham? A few of my classmates got sent there as well," Kagami said

"Oh really? What are there names?" Marinette asked

"Felix, Allan, Allegra, and Claude," Kagami replied

"No way! I'm friends with them!" Marinette replied

Kagami smiled, "What a coincidence," Kagami already knew they were friends, after all, she was the one that told them if Marinette was there they should be friends with her

Marinette smirked slyly, "Yep, what a coincidence"

'It seems my little plan didn't go unnoticed, I should really try and stop smiling when I talk about a plan,' Kagami thought to herself

"Did you two forget about us?" Jason asked feeling a little left out

Marinette laughed, "No, of course not"

"Absolutely," Kagami replied

"Gami! No, bad!" Marinette said with a laugh

Kagami smiled, "I was only speaking the truth, am I not a truther Marinette?"

"Let me live that down, it was one time!"

Kagami let out a chuckle and shook her head, it was these small happy moments that she loved the most.

"Okay, now I'm curious, what's the inside joke?" Jason asked with a grin

Kagami smirked

"Oh god, Kagami don't, please," Marinette feebly pleaded

"Well, one day Luka, Marinette, and I were hanging out," Kagami started, "We were at a café and then Lila showed up with her little posse, she was spinning a false tale and Marinette hated it,"

Luka cut in before she could finish, "We all hated it, we knew what she was really like after all, and anyway, Marinette said 'god I wish a truth akuma came and hit Lila with a truth ray' and then the conversation devolved into akuma powers and what kind of akuma we would rather be attacked by, then Kagami said 'I don't really see why we can see through the lies she tells' and Marinette responded with 'do you think they're good lies?'"

Kagami cut in, "I replied with 'no' and Marinette said, 'are you sure?' naturally I replied with 'are you calling me a liar?' and she said,"

Luka and Kagami simultaneously said, "'well I ain't calling you a truther'"

The two burst out in laughs, "That was the day we learned Marinette looked at memes when she was bored," Luka said

"It came as quite a shock to us," Kagami said, "We never expected her to be a memer, much less one that actually creates them"

Jason looked down at the group of teens, he was happy Marinette had an actual support system of supportive, loving friends.

Then the mood changed, it was gloomy, somber, filled with seriousness.

"Has Hawkmoth been active lately?" Marinette asked

"No," Luka replied, "It seems he's gone AWOL recently"

"He hasn't been active since you left, and even then he was hardly active before that," Kagami said, "Do you think Distant Galaxy took too much out of him?"

"No, if that was true then Mourning Star would've been the same, but there were two attacks directly after them, if anything I bet it has to do with something happening in his personal life," Marinette said, "Or he's planning something worse than what he's doing now"

The silence was suffocating until finally, Kagami spoke up

"Do you think we'll have to break our moral code and kill someone during the next fight?"

Luka shuddered while Marinette's eyes darkened, "If it comes down to it are we actually willing to do it?" she asked

"Sorry, but if we have to kill someone I won't be able to fight," Luka said, "I can barely stomach it when an akuma kills someone, I don't think I'd be able to do it myself"

"That's fine, I wasn't going to let either of you do it anyway," Marinette said, "If we have to kill someone I would rather be the one to do it, if it's one of you two then Paris would begin to doubt us even more since you two would be in the spotlight at all times, if we have to kill someone then I will do it secretly, we can't afford to lose more supporters than we already have"

Then Jason decided to step in, "How about we just look for another way besides killing someone? That would be better, right?"

"I mean, we would if we could but," Marinette glanced out the window in the direction of the Eiffel Tower, "I don't think Hawkmoth would allow another option"

"He doesn't make the rules though?" Jason replied

"I meant that if we tried to find another option he might just kill the civilian we tried to save even if we try to protect them we would fail because Hawkmoth has had his miraculous for far longer and he's also an adult, we're only 16 - Luka is bordering 17 though - and I've only had my miraculous for 2 years, Kagami and Luka have only had theirs for 1, and Chat Noir- hell I don't even know what to say about him! He doesn't even show up during akuma battles anymore, the last one he did was Distant Galaxy and that was only because his kwami forced him to, besides that I'm pretty sure he's defecting over to Hawkmoth's side"

"What? Chat Noir is defecting?" Luka asked

"Yeah, I've had my suspicions since Syren, he's been showing up less and less lately, it's only adding fuel to the fire," Marinette said

"No," Kagami murmured, "Isn't Chat Noir Adrien?"

"You knew?!" Marinette and Jason exclaimed

Kagami gave them a blank look, "I thought everyone did, he wasn't exactly being secretive about it, although, I guess it's to be expected, after all, Marinette has been avoiding him for a while and Jason….well, have you met Adrien? Or Chat Noir?"

"Only Adrien and that was only a brief moment, as for my opinion of him? Well, let's just say that if I had to choose between killing Hawkmoth or killing him I would choose Adrien"

Luka grinned, "That would make two of us"

A few minutes later Kaalki reminded Marinette and Jason that they need to leave.

They bid Kagami and Luka farewell before going back to Gotham. Once back they fell onto the ground side-by-side and laughed about the ridiculousness of the situation. After checking the time they went out to the living room to wait for breakfast, Tim and Dick were there quietly chatting with each other, once they saw - more like heard, as the two of them were laughing their asses off - Jason and Marinette walk into the living room they both stood up and rushed over to them.

"Where were you two?" Tim hissed

Dick looked them over worriedly

The two looked at each other, silently communicating, "Uh, well, we talked with two of my friends from Paris," Marinette said, she wasn't exactly lying, only omitting the truth a little

"Then where did you two go to talk to them?" Dick asked curiously, "You two weren't in either of your rooms"

"We went outside," Jason said, "We exited and came back in through the secret door west of my room"

Tim was surprised, Jason never showed newcomers that place unless he trusted them, "Really? You showed her?"

"Yeah, I would trust Marinette with my life at this point, besides I wanted a chance to talk to her friends about her embarrassing moments," Jason smirked, "She's a memer"

"God damn it Jason! I knew it was a bad idea to introduce you to Kagami and Luka!"

They chatted a little more, Tim learned that Marinette was also an insomniac and they bonded over that, Dick learned that she baked, they talked about recipes to one another, and Jason watched over them with a soft smile. Then Damian walked in to all of them bonding and decided to join in.

"So what do you like to do for fun, Marinette?" Damian asked

"I do a lot of things for fun which category do you want to know? Legal or illegal?"

Damian and the rest were surprised, Marinette did illegal things?!?!?

"Illegal," Tim, Dick, and Jason answered, Damian nodded to show he agreed with their choice

"Okay, well I picked locks, stole phones - but that's mainly to hide my tracks - I dabbled a little in hacking but that was mainly because the police weren't doing anything to help find Hawkmoth, I had to stop though because my mom found out and took my computer away for 2 weeks, then I also used to break into buildings, I stole a car once even though I didn't know how to drive, found out my classmates schedules illegally, broke into the principal's office to steal a hard-drive, and I broke into Chloe's father's hotel to steal back what Chloe stole from me - this was before we were on good terms"

The brothers were shocked, when she said illegal they thought maybe she broke into a building or something similar, they didn't think she actually had a whole list of illegal activities!

"Why the fuck did you do any of that?" Tim asked, he wanted to make sure she wasn't a villain in the making

"Well, for picking locks that was to break in to the Agreste estate to give back a book that Lila stole from Adrien's dad - they never found out about that, by the way - Hacking, well I already told you my reason for that, stealing phones, well one time I accidentally deleted a very important video from my friend's phone and didn't want her to find out so I stole it and re-did the entire video and then gave it back, the other times were like that as well, breaking into buildings was mainly for fun actually, the one or two times it wasn't was because I had to get something back, stealing a car was so I could arrive to an appointment on time - don't worry I gave it back - finding out my classmates' schedules well that's because I was the student representative and the school wouldn't give them to me the normal way so I had to do it the illegal way - I never told them I did that - breaking into the principal's office was because school picture day was happening and one of my classmates got locking into the bathroom and had to miss it so when they refused to retake the picture I took matters into my own hands and forced them to," Marinette explained

Tim nodded, "Yeah, I guess those are solid reasons, then what are the legal ones?"

"Designing, sketching, baking, self-defense training, parkour, painting, photography, reading, fencing, a lot of basic stuff," Marinette said

Then Alfred called the kids in for breakfast, they ate and then did their own thing. Damian and Marinette went to school, it was Friday which meant tomorrow was the weekend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Discord: https://discord.gg/saZFwSa


	7. Talks of Video Games and Homework

The two reached the school 10 minutes early just like the days before. They walked into the school, finding one member of their small group almost immediately.

"Hey Fe!" Marinette greeted upon seeing Felix

"Hey, Mari," Felix greeted, not bothering to look up from his book

"So, where are the others?" she asked looking around

"Claude is in a meeting with the theatre kids, Allegra is with the fencing club, and Allan hasn't even left his house yet"

"Ah, maybe I should join a club," Marinette said

Damian wanted to refute that proposition but couldn't find the correct words.

"Maybe you should join the weightlifting club," Felix said, "I saw how you threw Claude across the room when he startled you, the entire class did actually"

"Wait, Angel did what?" Damian asked, this was news to him, he didn't know she threw Claude

"Angel?" Felix asked with a smirk

"I-I mean Marinette," Damian said with a slight blush, barely noticeable unless you were looking closely

(Neither of them noticed Marinette's small blush as they were too into their own conversation.)

Felix stifled a snort, his eyes said 'we're talking about this later' but he told Damian the story anyway, "Yeah, Claude was being dramatic yesterday, Marinette wasn't paying attention, lost in thought or something and then Claude puts his hand on her shoulder bringing her back to reality and she just grabbed onto his wrist, judo flipped him over her shoulder and threw him across the room, everyone was shocked"

Damian was shocked, he thought this kind of news would have spread through the school like wild fire but it seems he was mistaken, or maybe it did and they just didn't tell him for some reason…..

Oh well, no use in worrying about it now, after all, he now has another story to tell his family once they get home.

~*~

Claude, Allegra, and Allan arrived to class around the same time, with 3 minutes left to spare they decided that they will be having a sleepover at Damian and Marinette's house, of course the two called Bruce to ask if it was okay, he said it was.

The end of the school day came quickly, Marinette, excited to actually have quality time with her friends, was walking with Damian to her right, Allegra to her left, with Claude and Allan walking behind them.

Alfred drove up to them, Marinette opened the door for all of them, Damian, Allen, and Allegra all went in without arguing but Claude remained outside.

"Go on in," Marinette said

"It's not gentlemanly to let a lady go in last," Claude replied

"I apologize but the only lady I see here is you," Marinette replied with an otherwise sweet smile despite the words she had uttered

Claude gasped while Allegra laughed and Allan smirked.

"You're the best, Mari," Allan said

"Why, thank you"

Claude got in and was pouting on the way to the manor, while the rest of them were quietly conversing.

They all got out when they reached the manor, Damian and Marinette scouted the location, Jason, Dick, and Tim weren't anywhere near the door, good, they didn't want them to embarrass them in front of their friends. While their friends just watched as they looked over the manor in sync, already thinking of ways to embarrass their friends with this new found information.

"Okay, all clear," Marinette said in a low voice

"All clear over here as well," Damian replied

"Safe to proceed?" Marinette asked

"Safe to proceed," Damian confirmed

They turned to their friends and said, "It's all clear, safe to proceed," and then walked into the manor without waiting for their friends

Alfred, who got out of the car, merely shook his head fondly and let out a small chuckle.

Felix, Allegra, Claude, and Allan followed Marinette and Damian inside, Alfred close behind to make sure none of them wander off.

"So," Allegra started, "What do you two do for fun?" Damian and Marinette look at each other, they didn't really do anything together, besides talk that is, maybe they should start a game?

"Well, I design fashion and make my own clothes, I joke around with Jason, Tim, and Dick, uh, I bake, and-" Marinette gasped, "I should resume all of the activities I used to!"

Jason decided to walk in then, "Which activities are you talking about? The legal ones or the illegal ones?"

"I don't know, just because you decided to bring it up I might just resume the illegal ones," Marinette said

"What? No!" Jason replied, "Don't! Gotham has enough villains, we don't need you and your petty crimes!"

"Is breaking into a building multiple times considered petty?" Marinette asked

"I mean, it is low on the crime chain," Allan said

"Then is hijacking a car also on the list?" Marinette asked

Allan looked at her strangely, "Why the fuck would you hijack a car?? Can you even drive one?"

"Now I can, besides I think it'd be fun to go back to Paris just to hijack a car"

"But you can't even bring it back to Gotham?"

"I know, the fun is in the adrenaline rush when the police are chasing you and you jump into Seine river," Marinette said as if she was speaking from experience, "But," she grimaced, "It might be better to keep crime in the spring and summer, jumping into the Seine in the winter would be a death wish"

"Did you actually do that?" Allan asked

"A little, I hijacked a car but no police officer chased after me and I didn't have to jump into the Seine, no matter how much I wanted to be involved in a car chase"

Allan sighed and shook his head in disappointment, "Marinette," he said in fond exasperation, "Don't be a criminal"

"Pssh," Marinette waved off the notion, "I would have to be caught to be a certified criminal"

Allan just sighed, no point in arguing with her.

"How about you just stick to the legal ones," Jason said, "Seriously, I like to think that my future sister-in-law is on the good side"

"But I am on the good-" Marinette paused, processing Jason's previous statement, "Sister-in-law?"

Jason grinned, "Oh, this is going to be fun~" before he walked out of the room, distantly you could hear the maniacal laughter of three lunatics with too much time on their hands

The young teens shook off any suspicion they had of what was to happen, it wasn't worth it to think of such useless things when they had business to do.

"Alright, down to business," Marinette said seriously, "Did any of you finish your homework?"

Damian, Claude, and Allegra all looked away from Marinette when that question was asked.

Marinette, Felix and Allan sighed, why were they the responsible ones?

"Did any of you at least bring your homework home?"

"Yeah," Damian said

"Uh….maybe?" Allegra said questioningly

"Nope, I'm dead, aren't I? yes I'm definitely dead," Claude replied

"Well, at least one of you was responsible," Marinette said with a twinge of disappointment in her voice

The two at least have the decency to look guilty. Marinette sighs,

"Whatever, we can just play a videogame or something"

"Well, actually, we don't have a gaming system," Damian says

"Who said I didn't?" Marinette replies

Damian looks confused, "Hold on, I'll go grab it real quick, I brought along a few games, I hope violence doesn't bother any of you"

They all shrugged, they didn't mind violence, besides it was just a video game, how bad could it be?

~3 hours later~

"WHAT THE FUCK WERE THOSE GAMES?!?!?!" Damian shouted after gagging for the fifth time, Allegra, Felix, and Allan all ran to the bathroom 2 hours earlier to puke their guts out, and Claude passed out from the sheer amount of violence and gore that went on

They had played 5 video games, each one got either better or worse than the one before, the last one they played was called harvester and in one of the scenes a mother was being eaten by her own children, that was by far the most disturbing in Damian's opinion.

Marinette was unfazed, "What? Those were the more modest games, I own worse"

Damian's eye twitched, "Enough is enough, you, young lady, will give me all of your video games, I'm confiscating them!"

"What?! You can't do that! Besides these are what I live for!" Marinette exclaimed

"I don't care, these games are too gruesome for such a young girl to be playing, now, hand them over"

"No"

"Yes"

"No"

"Yes"

"No"

"Yes"

"No"

"Yes"

"No"

"Yes"

"Yes"

"No"

"Why thank you for letting me keep my games," Marinette replied smugly

Damian was surprised he fell for such an obvious trick, that moments hesitation gave Marinette enough time to get her games and sprint to her room, quickly locking her game in a secret compartment she created just days before.

After Damian regained his senses he chased after Marinette, running to her room and banging door open. There on the bed was a smug Marinette,

"Wow Damian, didn't know you were so bold to barge into a lady's room," she commented

Damian blushed slightly before slowly backing out of the room, "You won this round, Marinette"

Marinette kept the smug look on her face until he rounded the corner, she let out a sigh and decided to go check up on her friends, which - she supposed - she should've done 2 hours ago.

Allegra and Allan were passed out on the floor, looking pale and a little sickly. Felix on the other hand looked as though he got dragged through hell and back.

"Fe, are you okay?"

Felix tried to reply but it only came out as a garbled mess that vaguely sounded like 'yeah'

"How many fingers am I holding up?" she held up 3 fingers

"Six," Felix slurred

"Wrong, you aren't all right at all"

Marinette got up and went to find Damian or maybe Jason, anyone really, because she couldn't handle dealing with sick friends, she didn't know how to.

She ran into Tim first, "Hey, Tim, I made my friends sick by playing a very violent video game, what do I do?"

"What game did you play?"

"Well, I played multiple, around 5 but my friends went to the bathroom around the 3rd game, and Claude passed out during the first"

"What game did you play that made them sick?"

"Well, I think it was Harvester, but that can't be right, it only had one disturbing scene and that was when a mother was eaten by her children, it wasn't that disturbing"

Tim paled, he had heard Damian scream 'what the hell were those games?!' , he had questioned his brother's sanity but now that he heard about one of the scenes he understood.

"Look, Marinette, I'm sorry to say but, you have to give up your games," Tim said slowly

"Not you too," Marinette whined

"Too?"

"Yeah, Damian was saying the same thing," Marinette huffed

"Well, he was right in doing so, those games are way too violent," especially if they made DAMIAN of all people sick, he was trained to be an assassin, if he can't handle those games then how can Marinette who had no prior training and hasn't had to stomach the guilt of murdering someone??

"I will not give up my games just because a few people can't stomach them, I've played and owned worse than what I played here"

"Who got you into such gore-y games in the first place?"

"My dad"

"When did you two start playing video games together?"

"Since I first showed interest in them when I was 7"

"Were those games gore-y?" Tim asked worriedly

"Does 'Happy Wheels' count as gore-y?" Marinette asked

Oh thank god, the title seems to be the name of a children's game, at least she wasn't started off with gore, Tim thought, well, spoiler, but he thought wrong

"Anyway, what do I do with my friends?"

Oh right, Tim almost forgot about that, "Well, all I can suggest is moving them from the bathroom and into the living room, I'll call Alfred and tell him his expertise is needed"

"Okay, thanks"

Oh wait, doesn't she need help carrying her friends from the bathroom to the living room?? Tim asked himself

Tim followed Marinette, she had reached the bathroom before he could turn the corner, he was about to enter the bathroom when Marinette came out carrying three sick friends out of the bathroom like potato sacks.

"What the actual fuck??" Tim whispered to himself, he didn't know Marinette was that strong

It seemed Damian witnessed it as well for he was across the hall from him, slack-jawed, eyes wide in awe, and softly muttering 'what the fuck' under his breath.

Then they heard an insanely loud 'WHAT THE FUCK' from two other people, no doubt it was Dick and Jason as they were in the batcave looking over surveillance to check if any of their friends wandered off.

There was also no doubt that Bruce would be told of the extremely disturbing video games Marinette plays and of Marinette's super strength that left them all wondering if she was one of Superman's secret love children, but then they waved that suspicion off, Tom and Sabine seemed to be happily married from what Marinette told them.

Soon after Marinette placed her friends on the couches dinner was served, she didn't want to wake them up but they would miss dinner if she didn't, so she sucked it up and woke them up. They were all groggy and ready to go back to sleep but one whiff of the food got their stomachs working, they sat down to eat.

Once they were all full they decided to go to bed, girls room in Marinette's room and the boys room in Damian's.

Sadly, there were more boys in their group than girls so Damian got the short end of the stick in this situation….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Discord: https://discord.gg/saZFwSa


	8. Of sleepovers and annoyances

-With the Class-

Lila was once again spinning outlandish tales, only now a few people were finding holes in her stories, like Max, he's had a slight suspicion since the napkin incident, after all, it was a napkin and he was wearing glasses, even if it hit him it would have bounced off, leaving only a slight scratch at most.

Then there was Kim, who personally knew Marinette's great uncle, so when Lila lied about being a great descendant of him he knew she was lying.

And then Alix, she knew her dad didn't know Lila, she's brought her up before and he said he never knew her, she was outraged that Lila would just lie about her family like that and then say that ALIX was mistaken when she tried to bring it up!

The rest of the class was as clueless as before.

"Alright class!" Ms. Bustier called out, "We'll be boarding the bus in 3 minutes, make sure you have all of your things, this trip is 2 weeks long"

"Yes, Ms. Bustier," the class responded instinctively

They boarded the bus after getting their luggage put away, off to the airport.

\----------------------------------

\--With the boys in Damian's room--

"So, Angel huh?" Felix started with a lazy smirk

"Huh? Who's Angel?" Allan asked

"Marinette, apparently"

"Ooooh~ my, my, my what do we have here? A young boy in love~?" Allan teased

Damian had a barely noticeable blush start spreading over his cheeks, "Shut up"

"Oh, I don't think I will," Felix replied, "Marinette is, after all, my self-declared little sister, let me be the protective older brother I've so longed to be"

Damian sighed, this'll be a long night, he was sure.

\-----------------------------------------

-With the girls in Marinette's room-

"So, Dami huh?" Allegra started

"I have no clue what you're talking about"

Allegra blinked, she didn't expect an answer like that, she expected less for the answer to be said in a calm voice that ledged on the edge of annoyance.

"Is someone in a bad mood?" Allegra lightly teased

Marinette looked over at her, her eyes cold and dead, it was quite unnerving.

"Bad mood?" Marinette started eerily, "No, I'm not in a bad mood, I'm positively livid," she stated calmly

"O-Oh? And why is that?"

"My old classmates will be in Gotham tomorrow, if I'm lucky I won't kill any of them," Marinette said, voice laced with spite and anger, "I don't want to be convicted of murder just yet"

"Why do I feel as though you would definitely murder them if there weren't certain regulations?"

Marinette shrugged and in the most nonchalant way possible said, "Probably because I would," before turning back on her bed to, presumably, sleep

Allegra sighed, she wanted the juicy details of when, how, and why Marinette had a crush on Damian, but alas, it seems her interrogation was just not to be.

Turning to her side, Allegra closed her eyes and let sleep overtake her exhausted mind.

\-----------------------------------------

-Back with the boys-

"Will you guys just shut up?" Damian growled, couldn't they just drop it?

"No," Felix responded, "Not until you tell me when you developed a crush on my little sister!"

"I don't have a crush!"

"Fine," Felix sighed, "Then when did you get infatuated with Marinette"

"God damn it!" Damian said loudly, "Fuck you two, I'm leaving"

And with that Damian left his room and went to Dick's.

"Open up!"

The door opened slowly, "What the hell?" Dick asked tiredly

"My 'friends' are being annoying at the moment, so I came to sleep here"

Dick just sighed and let him in, "I'll get the mattress"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize, I didn't mean for it to be so short, next update will be longer
> 
> Discord: https://discord.gg/5XcGjQe


	9. I apologize

I apologize, I will not be able to update this story for a while as my laptop, the device I have used to both write and post, is dead and I do not have a working charger for it at the moment, once more I apologize and thank you for understanding.


	10. Of Nightmares and Foreboding

-With the Kwami-

"Do you guys know the plan?" Wayzz asked

"Yeah," Trixx agreed, "I'm supposed to sneak into the Agreste house, cast an illusion on the residence and steal back the miraculous while Wayzz is going to lead and protect Master Fu while he revives Emilie Agreste"

"Yes," Wayzz said, "But you forgot one part"

"….And….we are to…..kill both Gabriel Agreste, Hawkmoth, and his assistant, Nathalie, or otherwise known as Mayura as soon as we see them," Trixx added on grimly

Wayzz nodded solemnly.

"Prepare yourselves, friends, for today we might not be able to make it out with our hands clean," with that Wayzz led the kwami back to their miraculous, they couldn't afford to be restless with such an important mission coming up

-With the girls-

Marinette woke up with a loudly beating heart and sweat dripping down her forehead. She shook her head,

"It was just a nightmare," she muttered to herself and yet she couldn't get her heart or breathing to calm

"It was just a nightmare," she gritted out

She started rocking, silent tears sliding down her face, "It was just a _nightmare_"

"I'm fine," she choked, "I'm fine, it was just a dream, no one's hurt, everyone's okay"

"Marinette?" Tikki asked in a voice quieter than most people can hear

"I'm fine," Marinette spat, "So why can't I just calm down?!"

"Oh, Marinette," Tikki said sympathetically, "It's normal to panic after a nightmare, just, just let your mind have time to realize that it wasn't reality, do something to distract yourself, maybe, just maybe that'll help"

All Marinette could do was nod, she couldn't trust her voice to keep in the oncoming sob almost forcing it's way out.

She silently walked over to her work desk, turning on her lamp to the dimmest brightness she got to work on a new design for Damian, she remembered that the only one she actually made a gift for was Jason, it was about time she got around to making the other's their gifts.

Two hours later, Marinette was considering jumping out the window, she had made so many mistakes while working, she pricked her fingers so many times she wasn't sure there was a surface on her hand that was left untouched, that's not even counting the many, _many_ times she had to stifle a yelp when she accidentally sowed a piece of her skin to the cloth or when she somehow got a couple staples in her hand while trying to staple two papers together to make sure she didn't lost one. Of course, she bandaged herself up every time she got hurt but that didn't stop her from being irritated by it. Besides that, she was just so, so tired, she was spent, she hadn't had a day to herself since she got here and it was wearing her out.

Once the clock struck 5 am she went out to the kitchen and made pancakes, some had chocolate chips, some had blueberries, a couple had m&ms mixed into them, and others were plain old pancakes, she had a feeling Damian would choose the plain ones. In total she made about 50 pancakes, all of varying sizes. By the time she was done it was already a little past 6:30. Sighing, she reached up into the cupboards and grabbed out the syrup, went to the fridge, grabbed out the butter and three packages of sausage links, placed plates on the table and set down the butter and syrup in the middle. Then she went over to the stove, grabbed out a separate pan and made the three packages of sausage links.

She had just finished making the sausage links when Jason, Tim, and Dick came down. Tim had deep, dark eyebags and 2 cups of coffee in both hands, his hands were also shaking. Jason, with his hair looking as if someone took a typhoon and put it next to his head, was scratching his chest under his shirt which caused his shirt to rise to his mid-waist, all the while he was yawning. Dick, on the other hand, was the exact opposite of the other two, he was dressed in a fancy suit, his hair styled, eyes bright and happy, all in all, he sort of looked like a fancy child hyped up on sugar.

"Alfred," Jason started tiredly

"I'm not Alfred," Marinette replied

"-Okay, fine then, Not Alfred, what're you cooking?"

"Did you jus- I take back every nice thing I've ever said and thought about you," Marinette replied

"Wait! No! I take it back!" Jason panicked

Marinette let out a slight laugh, "I was joking, and I'm making pancakes and sausage links"

"Nice, what kind of pancakes?"

"Some are chocolate chip, blueberry, m&m, and there's ordinary pancakes as well"

"Wow, you took all of our tastes into consideration," Tim said in awe, "How did you know I liked blueberry pancakes?"

"I actually didn't I just made them without knowing if any of you would like them"

"Well either way it is impressive"

"Thanks"

-With Damian-

Damian woke up with a start, he smelled pancakes, not just ordinary pancakes either, there were 4 different kinds in total, chocolate chip, m&m, blueberry, and ordinary. Ordinarily, he liked plain but sometimes, sometimes he liked blueberry, but that was only when he wanted something a little sweeter.

Letting his nose lead him to the dining room, he sat down at the table, "Who cooked? Was it Alfred?"

Damian looked to his brothers for the answer, they were all sitting at the table eating pancakes and sausage links, the optimal breakfast.

"No, it was actually Marinette," Tim said, although he had a slightly worried look on his face, "I'm actually a little worried, she looked like she could drop at any second, besides that she was also pretty restless, I don't know what's got her so wound up"

Jason nodded and hummed in agreement, "Her smile wasn't as bright either, it seemed to hold little to no joy in it"

Dick agreed, "Yeah, let's not even mention that her eyes weren't really focused and she seemed pretty distant, it was almost like she wasn't there, we played along and pretended nothing was wrong to make her more comfortable but I'm really worried"

"So none of you have any idea what's going on with Marinette?" A new voice asked

The four brothers turned to see Alfred looking worriedly in the direction of the kitchen where Marinette was at.

Jason, Tim, and Dick shook their heads no

"Maybe she had a nightmare?" Damian suggested

"It's plausible, but what kind of nightmare would she have to see to act like…..that?" Tim replied

"Maybe it was a nightmare about Paris? That's where she lived before, right?" Damian asked

"Yeah," Jason said, nodding his head, then his eyes were blown wide, "You don't think she had a nightmare about an Akuma do you?"

Tim and Dick stared with their eyes wide open, "We didn't think about that, but it is highly possible"

"I say it's time to commence Operation: Find out what's bothering Marinette," Jason said

"Everyone who agrees say 'Aye'," Tim said, "Aye"

A quiet chorus of 'Aye's rang out through the dining room, surprisingly enough even Alfred joined in.

-With the Class-

The class left the plane quickly, none of them wanted to be stuck on it for any longer.

"Listen up, children," Ms. Mendeleiev commanded, "Today we will be going to the hotel we booked, we are all going to unpack, it'll be resting day, don't, and I repeat, don't go out alone, Gotham is a dangerous place, you can and most likely will get killed if you go alone, that is all, now follow"

The class along with Ms. Bustier followed stiffly.

If you listened closely to Ms. Mendeleiev's voice you could hear her quietly mutter, "God, I wish Marinette was here, she was the best student in this class"

-Ms. Mendeleiev-

When she had heard that Marinette was moving she could only feel regret and resignation with a hint of pride. She regretted not helping the bright young child sooner, but she was resigned for she knew even if she had helped Marinette might've still moved, for who can completely forgive another that betrayed them so readily, and she was proud that the young woman took matters into her own hands and chose the best course of action, staying there would've only made her mentality worse besides, now that Marinette left Lila can no longer lie about her, but she now has free reign over the entire class.

If only Caline was more confrontational this matter would've been resolved by now, but alas, Mendeleiev could do nothing but watch from the sidelines as Caline's class tore itself apart from the absence of the only thing keeping them together.

The saying, 'You only know what you have when you lose it' strikes true for this class, however, she doesn't believe that they actually truly realize what they've lost, not yet anyway, but hopefully, they'll learn.

For now, though, they will continue being wrong. Mendeleiev can only sigh and hope that they don't run into Marinette during this trip for that will be the catalyst for making shit hit the fan.

-Tikki-

Tikki liked to think that she was caring and that she knew how to comfort people when they're hurt, but she couldn't help Marinette. She didn't quite know why Marinette was hurt besides the fact that her friends betrayed her, but in all actuality Tikki couldn't feel most emotions humans could, sure, she felt happiness, anger, betrayal, resignation, disgust, but she has never, ever felt what Marinette was feeling. That was another thing, Marinette had a creation soul, not just any creation soul, it was the one she made, that was why she was the best, it was because she was half-kwami.

Tikki has been wanting to tell Marinette about her new 'powers' and what she truly is but she hasn't been able to, she knows how much it's going to hurt Marinette when she finds out she's immortal, but it'll hurt her even more if she finds out on her own and Tikki is so torn between telling her or keeping it a secret. She was also a bit hesitant to tell her that when she fully controls her powers that Tikki will cease to exist, it's happened before, Tikki was one of the first Ladybug's, when the transition happened she was confused, her kwami, Isotonia was her name, never told her what would happen, only that she was the best ladybug that she had ever had.

The first thing that happens is that the kwami will be able to feel their chosen's emotions, although that happens when they first come into contact with their chosen, then the chosen will be able to use the kwami's powers outside of the miraculous, that part hasn't happened yet but who knows maybe it will soon, next they become immortal, it doesn't always go in that order but it usually does, finally they gain the ability to shapeshift from human to kwami, it's been a very long time since Tikki's transformed, it's gotten to the point that she barely remembers what she looked like as a human, hopefully, Marinette doesn't choose to stay a kwami like Tikki did.

For that decision was what killed the human part of her, it was what made her unable to feel simple, complex emotions that all humans should, it was what made her more kwami than human, but, she supposes, that's what made her, her.

-Adrien-

It has been a long week, it was a very last-minute decision to leave Plagg at home, and it was only because the kwami wouldn't shut up.

Now, finally off of the plane he followed Ms. Mendeleiev's orders and stuck close to the class. Maybe Marinette was here, that thought struck Adrien's mind, he let out a long sigh, he should've brought the miraculous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait, I tried to finish the chapter yesterday but I became too tired to write more.
> 
> Note: For your information, yes Marinette did eat breakfast, she just ate it in the kitchen since she didn't want to have to keep putting up a front in front of everyone.


	11. Marinette's Nightmare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This will be short since it is just Marinette's nightmare from the last chapter.
> 
> WARNING: This will be a little disturbing, proceed with caution

_It started off normal, Marinette was getting ready for the day, she left the bakery and walked to school, once she reached the classroom she walked up to the back of the class, alone, like she always is- no was._

_She was forced to sit quietly and listen to the tales Lila was saying, it killed her to stay quiet, she wanted- no needed to call Lila out, her lies weren't even believable nowadays._

_"Yeah, that's right, I'm dating Damian Wayne!" Lila announced_

_My mind screeched to a halt, _what?

_It seemed I asked that aloud for she turned to me with a strange gleam in her eyes, "I said I'm dating Damian Wayne? What's got you so interested Marinette?" the conniving liar asked with fake innocence_

_I felt rage overtake my mind, _why was I angry? Why would I care if she was lying about dating Damian?_, the scenery changed, this time I wasn't in a bathroom but an abandoned warehouse._

_Blood was once again splattered everywhere, but this time it wasn't just my classmates' blood, it was also the blood of Hawkmoth and Mayura, except they weren't in their costumes, they were Gabriel Agreste and Nathalie, next to their bodies was Adrien, he was crying, he was angry, he wanted revenge, he started shouting at me, I didn't feel anything except cold indifference, it was like I wasn't even there, then he lunged at me, I stabbed him and cut off his head with no hesitation._

_Alya was behind me, she was trying to run away, I grabbed a nearby chair and bashed her head in, there wasn't even so much as a twitch when I was done, then there was Nino who was crying for the loss of both his girlfriend and best friend, he looked up at me, and asked,_

_"Please, just kill me, I have nothing else to live for"_

_I complied _to_ his wish, it was the least I could do for my childhood friend. Lila was strapped to a medical table, next to her were scalpels, a three ponged claw-like device, a dull knife, a saw, a hammer, and a gun. I quickly figured they were there to torture her, numbly I picked up a scalpel, slowly I put small lacerations on her legs, traveling up to her arms where they ended on her shoulders, she was crying at this point, begging for me to stop, it lit a fire of joy but it also brought slight disgust, if it was at what I was doing or her begging, I don't know, all I knew was that I wanted to make her feel pain, and boy, did I do that._

_I took the hammer and smashed her fingers, she cried out again, I chuckled this time,_

_"Oh Lila, do you honestly think I would stop when I'm having so much fun?~"_

_I put the hammer down and picked up the saw, I started sawing her left leg off, she was screaming and crying and all I did was laugh, I laughed and laughed until she eventually died of blood loss,_

_"Oh well, my fun is done, now I must go as well,"_

_After I said that I picked up the gun and put a bullet through my head._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That was a wild ride, am I right?


	12. Happiness With A Dash Of Tragic Anime Backstory

After breakfast, Marinette went back to her room where Allegra was just getting up, Allegra saw Marinette and got up, rushing to give her a hug. The two fell on the bed,

"What's wrong?" Allegra asked

"It was just a nightmare, I'm fine," the reassurance seemed fake even to Marinette's ears

"It wasn't just a nightmare if it's hurting you," Allegra said

"But it is, it was just a nightmare, a bad one, but a nightmare one in the same," Marinette tried to justify, she failed

Allegra looked down solemnly, "No sweetheart, it's not just a nightmare, it may be a nightmare but it's not just a nightmare, now, can you tell me what your nightmare was about?"

Marinette shook her head, "No, no, I'm……..I'm not ready yet"

Allegra nodded, "Of course," she spared a glance to the door, "Do you want to go get the boys and watch a movie in the living room?"

Marinette nodded, she didn't particularly want to but it was probably better to not be alone right now.

The two walked to Damian's room, bursting through to see that Felix, Claude, and Allan were all still asleep.

"Wake up Dunderheads!" Allegra announced

Claude groaned, "Noooooooooo~ I don't wanna"

"Quit your whining and just get up, or do you want to miss breakfast?"

The three were up in a matter of seconds

"Breakfast? Did someone say breakfast?" Claude asked

Marinette failed to keep in a giggle, Allegra looked back and smiled softly at her.

"I did," Allegra said, "now get up"

"Okay, okay," Claude said with his hands up as if he was approaching a wild animal

"Claude if you don't put your hands down and start walking normally your arms and legs will be no more," Allegra threatened

Claude complied and speed-walked (read: ran) to the dining room where the Wayne brothers were.

The chatter of the four boys came to an abrupt stop when the group entered.

Allan raised an eyebrow, "What was happening here?"

Damian cleared his throat, "Nothing was happening in here"

"Then what was your conversation about?"

"That would be none of your business"

Allan huffed, "Fair point"

The teens got breakfast and ate before they all collectively agreed to watch a movie, a horror movie to be exact, and they let Marinette choose the movie.

Big Mistake……………..

Marinette chose Saw II, they all sat down on the couch and watched as the overly cruel movie was played. Jason sat to the right of Marinette, Damian was to her left, next to Jason was Dick and next to Damian was Tim, in front of the couch was Allegra, to her right was Claude and to her left was Allan, Felix sat next to Allan.

20 minutes in and Allan threw up his arms yelling out, "Fuck this shit!" before leaving for Damian's room.

Felix follows after Allan two minutes later with a random book in his hands.

Claude leaves after 45 minutes and Allegra leaves after 1 hour.

Jason is gasping and muttering, "What the hell?" under his breath.

Tim is staring blankly, Marinette is fairly sure that he's zoning out or having a silent excisional crisis.

Dick is staring at the screen, jaw-dropped, eyes blown wide, and flinching every time Jigsaw begins to speak.

Damian is looking done with life.

And……..Marinette……

Marinette is……laughing her ass off.

All the while she's also pointing out how they could've easily solved the 'puzzles' and how Jigsaw was a fucking idiot because they were so 'easy'.

Then, 1 hour and 12 minutes in, Bruce comes home……

"Oh, you guys are watching Saw?" He asks

Marinette turns around and excitedly replies, "Yeah! It's the 2nd one! Want to watch it with us?"

Bruce smiles, "Yes, if you wouldn't mind making room on the couch?"

Marinette moves closer to Damian and pats the large space between her and Jason. Bruce sat down…

That was when the true terror began….

Bruce and Marinette began their running commentary that filled the house with disturbing laughter.

The day was eventful to say the least, the Wayne boys all agreed to never let Marinette choose movies or video games, the quantic kids were traumatized, and Bruce and Marinette bonded.

\-------------------------------------------

-With Master Fu-

It was finally done, Mayura - Nathalie - and Hawkmoth - Gabriel Agreste - were dead, Duusu and Nooroo were retrieved, the bodies were disposed of, Emilie was revived, and Adrien was missing.

Well, not exactly missing, Master Fu knew where he was, he knew Adrien's class was going on a trip to Gotham, but he couldn't bring himself to take Plagg away from him, not when he had just gotten rid of the boy's guardians, not when he just brought the boy's mother back only to discover that the mother did it on purpose, that she never actually loved her child and only put on a façade to fool the people.

He may have had skewed morals but he knew when too much was too much, he knew when a child of Adrien's caliber would break. So, he lied to the kwami, said that Adrien and Plagg must be at school, it was plausible as classes wouldn't have ended quite then, it was only noon after all and Adrien usually spent lunch at school.

The kwami bought the lie, they were hesitant, however, to just go back to their boxes. Master Fu convinced them though, by saying that they would need rest to be at their best if they wanted to catch him for he had the Black Cat miraculous.

\----------------------------------------------

-With the class-

The teachers led the class to a museum that had statues of every villain Gotham has ever had.

Adrien was interested in the so-called villains, he had questions for them. Questions like, what is their goal? Why do they do what they do? What do they do? What have they done? Did they become villains because they lost someone important to them? Did they have a different reason? Do they despise their 'heroes'? And many, many more that he wanted- no needed, to be answered.

Alas, he knew that unless he tracked the villains down himself he would never know the answers to his questions. They would forever be unanswered, left only to his imagination and mind to what they could've been.

Sometimes he wonders if the path he took was the correct one, he betrayed the one he thought he loved for his father. Now, though, looking back on it, he couldn't say that what he felt was truly love and not a sick obsession, an obsession that caused him to go against his father, the only one in his life that ever truly loved him besides Nathalie. That's right, he knew his mother didn't love him, he knew ever since he heard Nathalie and his mother arguing. He's known since he was 5 that his mother didn't actually love him and when she found out that he knew……

….Let's just say it didn't end well for him and that was the day he gained his first scar that only paved the way to many more…..

His father never knew, he didn't tell, his mother didn't tell, Nathalie didn't tell. It was all just one big secret that they couldn't bare to reveal.

Maybe that's the reason why, why his father always discarded him, always shrugged him off, always ignored him. Or perhaps, his father was jealous of the attention his son was getting even if it wasn't good, even if it hurt his son, even if it fucked him up so bad that he became a villain.

Nathalie tried to protect him, tried to shield him from the blows, tried to stop Emilie from going too far. He knew that Nathalie was relieved when Emilie disappeared, he knew that she was happy that she didn't have to take the hits for him anymore, that she was relieved she didn't have to tell his father about what Emilie was doing to their only son.

And finally, he knew that he was going to regret everything he has done, he knew he was going to hate his mother, he knew he never really loved his parents either.

He knew a lot of things, he really, truly did, but he didn't know the reason why, why any of this had even happened to him, why he was so numb to any emotion besides anger and joy, why he found joy in harming the innocent…….

He hoped he would never have to find out the answers to those questions either for they might just shatter his already fragile view of life.


	13. Class Meeting

"Mental health is overrated," Marinette announced one morning, it was the very same day that her old french class was supposed to join the class

In her hand was a cup filled to the brim with coffee, three different energy drinks and at least 4 cubes of sugar, Marinette looked down into her cup,

"And so is physical health," before she downed the entire cup

Then she got up and made herself another cup of the glorified abomination she had the audacity to call coffee.

Allan, Claude, Felix, and Allegra left the day before.

Tim was in awe, "how the heck did you drink that so fast?"

"Years of practice," was all Marinette said

Then her phone rang, it was a……weird ringtone to say the least,

"Miraculous, simply the best, up to the test when things go wrong~"

"Hello, Master Fu?"

"Ah, Marinette, we have a problem…."

Her expression hardened, wonder what that's about?

"Does it have something to do with Hawkmoth? Mayura? Lila?"

"*chuckle* No no, it has nothing to do with them, it has to do with someone much worse, much more volatile"

"Adrien?" She asked but it was more of a statement than a question

"Uh, yes, he, uh, I, no, we failed to retrieve Plagg from him, don't worry though, we're not leaving you to deal with it alone, we're sending Ryuuko, Viperion, and Pollen your way, be careful Marinette, he's going after you"

"Of course Master Fu, will you be joining us try then?"

"I apologize my child but I can not join you, I have a bit of unfinished business to attend to, but I wish you luck, you're going to need it"

"Got it, I'll be awaiting their arrival"

"Mmm, they should arrive at the Wayne manor tomorrow, make sure your 'family' doesn't harm them too badly"

Marinette chuckled, a fond smile on her face, "Now, wouldn't that be a show?"

Her call ended with her saying goodbye to this 'Master Fu' guy.

"So, what was that about?" Tim asked

"Two of Paris' heroes will be coming here to take care of some unfinished business," she answered, "They're going to show up tomorrow, please don't attack them"

\------------------------------------------------------

-Master Fu-

I was wrong, Hawkmoth wasn't the evil, he was the good, he was misguided sure, but he wasn't evil, no, the evil was the one in a coma, it was the wife, it was Emilie. She was the abusive one, she was the one that didn't care, she was the one that ruined Adrien.

I wish I could go back, back to when I gave Marinette and Adrien the miraculous, I want to change who I chose for the black cat, for Plagg. I knew then, before now, that Adrien wasn't the true chosen for Plagg, I knew it wasn't my place to give him Plagg even if we were running out of time, but I was foolish, an idiot.

While I could continue to bemoan my mistakes, my time would be better spent getting Plagg back.

After searching for a couple more days I finally found him. Plagg was carefully hidden in a secret compartment, there was nothing in there besides Plagg's ring and Plagg himself, no cheese, no crumb, nothing.

Plagg and I talked, he told me about what Adrien was like in the beginning, how he changed, what set him off, and finally, what he did to him. I didn't know what to say, Plagg had evil users before, but none of them, absolutely none of them did anything that bad to Plagg, most of the time the users thought they were on the good side, that other side was wrong, they weren't unnecessarily cruel to Plagg, but Adrien……….Adrien was the worst person I could have chosen. I apologized, many, many times before Plagg and I decided to end the conversation.

It was about time we got to business.

I called up Ryuuko,

"Ryuuko,"

"Master Fu? Is something wrong?"

"I'm going to need you and Viperion to take Pollen to Gotham and help Marinette"

No more questions were asked, I sent the two young heroes off with their miraculous and Pollen, hopefully they can bring Adrien down.

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------

-Gotham-

Marinette and Damian went to school, meeting up with their group of friends at the entrance of the school. Marinette's old class was going to be here so they wanted to be with her at all times to stop them from trying to speak to her.

Sadly, their attempts did very little in regards to her old class. Thankfully, they had an ally in that class, Chloe.

"Mari!" she screeched happily

"Chlo!" Marinette said, "I've missed you! How are Luka and Kagami?"

"They're doing good! I've missed you as well, this class is ridiculous, utterly ridiculous!"

"I know"

"Lie-bitch has been saying that she knows the Waynes, everyone in that god damn class believes her too!" Chloe said, her other classmates had already left the premises, "She even said that she was dating Damian Wayne! She can't even get his brothers' names right!"

"What does she call them?"

"Tim Todd, Jason Grayson, and Dick Drake"

Marinette burst out laughing, as did the quantic kids, Damian struggled to keep a straight face, a small smirk on his face.

"Oh god, I have to tell them!" Marinette said, "They wouldn't believe this!"

The day went on with little fanfare, Marinette masterfully avoided her classmates other than Chloe.

Then lunch came and shit hit the fan, it started like this (in the words of Damian):

_~Lila and her crew of bitches walked into the _lunch room_, almost immediately Lila noticed Marinette's beautiful raven hair. Lila and the bitch crew sauntered over, it appeared Lila had a truly atrocious plan._

_"Why if it isn't Slutinette?" Lila taunted, "Never thought I would see you here"_

_Marinette's eye twitched, "Yeah, never thought I would see a lying bitch here either, turns out we were both wrong on that matter"_

_The two glared at each other before Lila began to play her act, her _lackies_ began to coddle her. How disgusting really, I nearly puked. Anyway, the bitch crew then got mad at Marinette instead of it being the other way around, they truly are idiots._

_"Oi, sausage hair," Felix called out_

_I nearly laughed as Lie-bitch gasped_

_"Could you shut the fuck up? I'm trying to read here"_

_Of _course_ that's what Felix cares about._

_Lila gasped again and began to 'cry'_

_I sneered in disgust_

_"You are disgusting," I said_

_It appeared that Lie-bitch thought I was talking to Marinette or Felix because she started to smirk, well, jokes on her because she's the most disgusting piece of shit I've ever had the misfortune to lay my eye on._

_"I know, she really is, isn't she?" Lie-bitch said in a shrill, equally disgusting voice_

_"I was talking about you"_

_"Wha," Her face fell, no longer holding the smirk it had once before_

_"Is your hearing as bad as your looks? I said I was talking about you"_

_Lie-bitch sputtered, _apparently_ she had never been called ugly before._

_Her bitch crew then started shouting some shit but I wasn't paying attention to them_

Instead_ I was looking at Marinette who was desperately trying to hide her giggles, a small smile must have appeared on my face because Allegra gasped and said_

_"Holy shit, the demon can smile! I repeat the demon can smile!"_

_To which I told her_

_"Shut up"_

_Marinette finally laughed out loud after my response_

_Then the group and I plus Chloe exited the _lunch room_ with Marinette. The others were ahead of Marinette and _I_, they had said something about getting to know the 'sunshine child's friend'._

_Marinette and I were having our own little conversation._

_"I don't know, the only tolerable Gotham vigilante I can think of would be Robin," I replied_

_So I want her to like my superhero persona, sue me_

_"Are you sure? I was certain that Nightwing and the others were quite amusing as well"_

_"Amusing? Sure, but they are not tolerable or healthy to be around after long periods of time"_

_"You make them sound like drugs"_

_"You never know"_

_Marinette laughed, once her giggles had subsided she walked closer to me, once the group turned the corner she whispered into my ear,_

_"I love you"_

_And walked a little faster, leaving me stunned and - not that I would ever admit it to somebody else - blushing up a storm.~_

And that's why shit has hit the fan, Damian is now questioning his view on romance while Marinette, in newfound confidence, is talking with their friend group.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Discord: https://discord.gg/zuQ2x86


	14. I'm so so sorry

Okay, so I can not continue this series, I sincerely apologize to all of you who were waiting for another chapter, however, I have no inspiration for this fic anymore, but if you want to know what I planned to happen next, read below:

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------

So basically, Adrien was going to find Marinette after the scene Lila caused, the class was going to drift even further apart. Adrien, who doesn't have his miraculous with him, was just going to steal Marinette away by using his left-over strength from being Chat Noir for so long, but he doesn't account for Damian or Marinette's true strength, he gets beaten, outraged, he begins to act like a wounded, scared animal, attacking anything and everything in his way. He still gets beaten but then he is taken by the police to Arkham Asylum to ensure he never bothers Marinette or the Waynes again. A couple weeks after the incident the students of Marinette's old class leave, not one ever apologized to her, and Damian finally confesses to Marinette, they begin dating while the Waynes take cute little pictures and tease the two with them. Marinette visits her parents when her first long vacation comes around and she learns that her assumption about Hawkmoth being Gabriel Agreste was correct, but Gabriel Agreste and Nathalie were also dead so instead of beaming with pride about her correct assumption Marinette feels sad, Viperion - Luka and Ryuuko - Kagami do arrive at the Waynes, however, they don't really do anything besides comfort Marinette and the Waynes because they arrived there a day later due to some type of issue (I was thinking about having Pollen run off because she/he thought they could smell Chloe, their queen, and went to find her even for only a small reunion).Then about a month or two after the incident happens Master Fu shows up at the Wayne's doorstep and makes Marinette the true guardian before losing him memory and wandering off, Marinette helps him get back to Paris with the help of Kaalki. One day Marinette decides to call up Jagged and he surprises her with a visit since he was nearby. Tim and Dick freak out and ask him for autographs all the while Fang goes and greets Marinette in his own Fang way. Damian promptly freaks out when Fang greets Marinette with licks and tiny nibbles, Marinette, however, just laughs about it.

Then they all live!

\------------------------------------------------  
If anyone wants to pick up this story they can!


End file.
